Gross anatomical study of the aortic ARC branches of the paca (Agouti paca, Linnaeus, 1766)

Abstract

It was described the distribution of the aortic arc in eight animals of the Agouti paca species, which were 2 adult females, 3 young males and 3 young females that came from the Wild Animal Sector at the Faculty of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences of Jaboticabal - UNESP. After natural death, the animals had their arterial vessels injected with Neoprene latex 650® coloured by a specific pigment and set in a 10% formalin solution. After dissection, it was noticed that the aortic arc gives off the left subclavian artery and the brachiocephalic trunk. The latter originates the left carotid common artery and other trunk, that gives off the right carotid common artery and the right subclavian artery, that originates the vertebral artery, the costocervical trunk, the superficial cervical artery, the axillary artery and the internal thoracic artery, as well as it happens in the left subclavian artery. In just one animal, the left common carotid artery takes a siphon-shaped path just after its origin in the right subclavian artery. In other animals, the left common carotid artery occurs as a straight path.