Previously, I'd mentioned the axes of the body during development, and I tried to simplify it by just calling it the head and the butt end. Right? Keep it simple, side a side b. Turns out, of course, because this is science, there are much more complicated names associated with these body axes. So, let's go through a little terminology right now to get our axes straight. So first, we have what's called the anterior-posterior axis. And you can actually see this in our image indicated by this green plane. So here we have our anterior-posterior axis. The anterior end is up here, toward the head, and the posterior end is down here. Oh, that came out ugly, sorry guys. Posterior, alright, good enough.
Now, we also need to be aware of the dorsal-ventral axis which is actually represented by this blue plane, here. Dorsal Ventral Axis. So, the ventral side is toward the belly. So here we have our ventral side and our dorsal side is toward the back. So think like a dorsal fin on a dolphin and I'm sorry, this is the world's ugliest dolphin ever but you get the idea. Right? Alright. So, those are 2 of the major and important body axes to be aware of. So when someone says dorsal or dorsally, whatever, they're talking about something toward the back, ventral toward the belly, anterior toward the head, posterior toward your bum. Alright.
Now, complex body plans, like the human body, don't form overnight, right? Rome wasn't built in a day, development doesn't happen overnight. For humans, it takes more like 9 months, right? We all know this. So, how does that happen? Well, it happens in stages. You see these chemical signals come and go and they fine tune development. So we start with broad strokes. Right? Setting up the major axes and then we refine that a little bit more with gap genes. And then with pair rule genes, we get a little more fine tuned. And then second polarity genes, even a little more fine tuned. And finally, we have the Hox genes, which we'll talk about on the next page, and they lead to effector genes. So, basically, this process of body formation happens in multiple stages over a long course of time. So let's turn the page and talk a little bit more about Hox genes because those are going to be very important.