Talk:Thorax

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Thorax is included in the 2007 Wikipedia for Schools, or is a candidate for inclusion in future versions. Please maintain high quality standards, and make an extra effort to include free images, because non-free images cannot be used on the CDs.

In the language spoken by the ordinary people one could say that chest is another word for thorax. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.57.250.81 (talk • contribs)

I do not understand why all the terms you're looking for in Wikipedia have to be of Latin Origin or of medical terminology. The English word "chest" is used and known by everyone and it is not just a colloquial word. I even cannot understand why you have to look for the term "umbilicus" instead of "navel"..????? But there is just one argument that would support the idea of merging "chest" into "thorax": it would be consequent! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.63.120.12 (talk • contribs)

I agree with the merge suggestion. The articles themselves show that these are (at least roughly) the same parts of the body. --Etxrge 06:34, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

The trouble is that for animals, we don't use the word chest. For arthropods especially, like the trilobite and insect in this article, the word "thorax" designates a specific area of the body and is a commonly used scientific word. I therefore disagree with the merge, but instead I propose that we modify both articles so that "thorax" is only about the animal body part, and "chest" is only about the human body part. It looks like both articles are already sort of divided up like this, so there wouldn't be much to do. And of course we can make links from one article to the other, so that they are not isolated. For example, have a link on "thorax" like "for the human body part, see chest", and vice-versa. IronChris | (talk) 07:02, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

I did this, entirely unaware of this discussion at first. --Steven Fruitsmaak 17:52, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I would argue that the 'chest' and 'thorax' are not the same -- making thorax=exoskeletal animal and chest=human is oversimplification. The chest is only one area of the thorax (the upper back being the other). As an encyclopedia Wikipedia should be more comprehensive. Perhaps the thorax article can be expanded to include, roughly, subsections on humans, other mammals/endoskeletal animals, and arthropods?Tysalpha 14:32, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Homology

Is the thorax of arthropods and vertebrates homologous? The article should say so. John.Conway 15:09, 16 April 2007 (UTC)