A bunch of free and printable pig diagrams are available to assist you in your biology class! Pigs, usually the fetal ones, are among the most common animals used in classroom dissection. Pigs share same traits with human, which make it the reason why they are one common animal for dissection. Shared traits include common hair, mammary glands, live birth, similar organ systems, metabolic levels, and basic body form. Use the following anatomy diagram resources to review the anatomy of the pig. The cut/dissection guide is posted right below.
While these pig diagrams are useful for learning the anatomy of the fetal pig, be careful with only memorizing these anatomy diagram drawings. Take into account that real pigs are not as cleanly pictured and the parts not perfectly aligned. Be sure to study the real pig photographs also. One shared trait between pig and human is that pigs have all of the same thoracic and abdominal organs as humans. However, there are small differences in a few organs.
You can start your dissection in the neck region. Make sure to try to cut is as little as possible. Once the body cavity is open, you will generally be able to separate the different organs by simply pulling them apart with your fingers, forceps, or a probe. The more you cut things up, the harder it will be to figure out what you’re looking at. Cut midline on the ventral surface of the neck to expose the underlying muscles. Carefully separate the muscles to observe the underlying structures. (source)
The unlabeled version above can be used as evaluation resource. All these pictures can be saved for free. Just click on the image to enlarge and save it. Learn more about the other animal dissection diagrams through the other posts that we have provided in the previous posts.