Some anatomical studies on the biceps femoris muscle in some domestic animals

ABSTRACT

The biceps femoris muscle is one of the caudal femoral muscles which share in the formation of the calcanceal tendon in all studied animals. The biceps femoris muscle, has an ischiatic head and a vertebral head. The presence of the vertebral head depends upon the mode of the locomotion of the animal. There is no vertebral head in case of the dog. The rabbit has only one vertebral head. The vertebral head fuses with the gluteal muscle to form the gluteobiceps muscle in the ruminats and camel. There are two vertebral heads, in donkey. The biceps femoris is the strongest and heaviest muscle of caudal femoral muscles and is more developed in camel, dog and rabbit. The belly is single and broad sheet in rabbit or divided into two unequal parts which are separated either completely as in donkey or incompletely as in ruminats and camel. In dog, the belly, is divided into three parts [superficial, intermediate and deep heads]. The belly is quadrilateral in outline in all studied animals except in dog which is triangular. The muscle terminates by strong anoneurosis which is short in dog. The cranial part is inserted in the patella, the middle part in the cranial border of the tibia while the caudal one in the calcaneal tendon, through the lateral tarsal tendon