Thorax

INDEX - Wikipedia CD Selection

Diagram of a tsetse fly, showing the head, thorax and abdomen

The thorax is a division of an animal's body that lies between the head and the abdomen.

In humans, the thorax is the region of the body that extends from the neck to the diaphragm, not including the upper limbs. The heart and the lungs reside in the thoracic cavity, as well as many blood vessels. This area is protected by the rib cage and the sternum.

In insects and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main segments of the creature's body. It is the area where the wings and legs attach in insects, or an area of multiple articulating plates in trilobites.

The trilobite body is divided into three major sections, a cephalon with eyes, mouthparts and sensory organs such as antennae, a thorax of multiple similar segments (that in some species allowed enrollment), and a pygidium, or tail section.

Thorax is also the name of a character in Brooke McEldowney's comic strip, 9 Chickweed Lane, who has also made guest appearances in McEldowney's other strip, Pibgorn. Apparently a large, amiable elderly farmer, he is... not quite human, and has a quantum anomaly in his shed.

Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorax"

Free encyclopedia - features more than 100 trusted sources, including encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauruses with facts, definitions, biographies, synonyms, pronunciation keys, word origins, abbreviations, and more. The Columbia Encyclopedia - World Encyclopedia - Encyclopedia of World Biography - A Dictionary of Business and Management - The Oxford Dictionary of Art - Encyclopedias available in our online research library - Science dictionaries are a great source of reputable information for everyone from students doing homework to professors preparing for science lessons.