As the title suggests, this is an in-depth anatomy textbook. It is ring bound, so it lies flat and fits nicely on a mayo stand in surgery, or on a counter during a postmortem evaluation. The general sections include: Body Regions; Juvenile Features and Sex Differentiation; External Features; Mammary Glands; Structures of the Head and Neck; Heart, Vascular Tree and Respiratory Tract; Abdominal Structures; Male Urogenital Apparatus; Female Urogenital Apparatus; Pelvic Limb Vessels and Nerves; Structures of the Tail; and Skeletal Structures.
This book is visually appealing as it has many detailed, well-done, full color drawings of mouse and rat anatomy throughout. Following the side-by-side annotated drawings of each species, there is a description of the structure featured, including the differences between the mouse and the rat. Topics are covered that I didn’t expect, such as the detailed section on Juvenile Features, which includes drawings of mouse and rat pups at < 24 hours, 5 days, 11 days, 21 days, and adult, explaining how you would sex each species at each age. In the Heart, Vascular Tree and Respiratory Tract section, the book seems to have every conceivable projection of the thoracic structures — with ribs and without ribs, in situ from left and right, in situ from ventral and dorsal, longitudinal sections, etc. As I said, it is very detailed.
This book is endorsed by the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS), and the value of this book for laboratory animal veterinarians is clear. I do, however, feel that this book could also be a valuable resource for clinical practitioners. As an exotic animal veterinarian, for example, I was very interested to see the detailed drawings of the mammary glands. Mammary gland tumors are a common issue in mice and rats, so it is good to be able to appreciate how far that tissue extends from the ventral area and the actual papillae. Many of the other sections would be useful in establishing the locations of structures for radiographs, surgery, sample collection, catheter placement, etc.
The only comment I have is that I did find the order of some of the drawings to be a little bit random. As previously mentioned, the first section of this book is Body Regions, which makes sense to give an overall picture before diving into specifics. However, within this first section, somewhat randomly, is the very specific: “Landmarks for access to cervicothoracic vessels (ventral aspect) showed in a rat.” This is an interesting and potentially useful drawing, but it just struck me as odd that it would be in this general section. Perhaps the author or editors felt that this particular drawing would be referenced frequently, and as such, it was placed near the beginning of the book.
Overall, I found this book to be very interesting, visually appealing, and a detailed exploration of the anatomy of the mouse and rat, with the differences between the species clearly highlighted in the text. This textbook would be a useful reference for laboratory animal veterinarians and exotic animal practitioners.