If I drew a vertical line from my head to my toes, my left and right halves would be bilaterally symmetric. What do you call a horizontal division? If I drew a line at my waist that separates my legs from my "top half", how would I refer to those halves? Cranial/Caudal? Superior/Inferior?
Thank you.
Best Answer
To specifically divide a (human) body you would need to draw a plane. The plane you are referring to is called transverse, axial or horizontal plane (they are synonyms). You can't go wrong if you say that this plane divides you into superior and inferior part (those are used as directions in the body).
Cranio-caudal is also used to refer to direction in biology. Cranial refers to the head (skull) and caudal refers to the tail. Generally when we stand up our head is above our tailbone, but some might mistake caudal with posterior (dorsal) direction (although that wouldn't be correct, superior-inferior is a less ambiguous option in humans). Cranio-caudal is mostly used in embryology and sometimes radiology.
Images from:
Edit:
Just to be clear, although in two-legged animals, like us humans, cranio-caudal is actually top-bottom, in four-legged animals (i.e. quadrupeds), that's quite different. Have a look at this picture:
Or read more at: The virtual biology labs (courtesy of ermanen)