Human Anatomy Infographic, a Cutaway of the Human Body

Key points from the illustration

• The page is a cutaway painting of a whole man, peeled back in layers to show skin, muscles, organs, bones, blood vessels, nerves and lymph nodes at once.
• More than 70 labels name the parts, from the olfactory bulb in the head to the hallux (big toe).
• Eighteen short fact boxes surround the figure, covering topics such as bite strength, blood volume, the 206 bones of the skeleton and the smallest bone, the stapes.
• Cross-sections of the neck vertebrae, thigh and calf show how muscles, arteries, veins and nerves sit together inside a limb.

The human anatomy infographic in text

Running head: More Incredible Cross-Sections, page 28. Title: Human body. The introduction compares a trip through the body to riding the subways and sewers under a city: the ride from the heart slows as the tunnels narrow before returning about a minute later, a trip around the lungs is quicker, with “hurricane-force winds” blowing you out again, and the brain controls the network through a web of tiny nerves.

Fact boxes

• Masticating muscle. The masseter lets us bite and is the body’s strongest muscle. Normal bite pressure is about 75 to 100 kg (165 to 220 lb); some people reach nearly half a ton.
• Reliable ticker. The heart is about the size of a fist, can last 70 years and pumps 30 times its own weight of blood a minute.
• Not really bored. Yawning draws air into the lungs when the brain needs more oxygen, often after a long period of inactivity.
• Digestive system. The gut runs about 9 m (30 ft) from mouth to anus; food takes about 24 hours to pass through.
• Liver. The heaviest internal organ, about 1.5 kg (3 lb), tucked under the lungs on the right; one of its jobs is filtering blood.
• Stomach ache. Stomach acid is strong enough to dissolve metal and can burn an ulcer; mucus protects the lining, which renews itself every three days.
• Hefty appetites. People in the West eat an average of 40 tonnes of food in a lifetime, enough to fill a container lorry.
• Nice iced. Claims fresh urine is completely sterile, and that beetroot can colour urine red and asparagus green.
• Ticklish question. Science cannot yet explain why you cannot tickle yourself.
• Claret of life. The body holds about five litres (1.3 gallons) of blood, three-fifths of it in the veins; the lungs hold about two and a half cups at any moment.
• Lymphatic system. Lymph, a thin milky liquid, carries white blood cells that fight infection; germ-killing cells gather in the nodes (glands) when you are ill.
• Grey lump. The brain is not much to look at but is called many millions of times more powerful than the biggest computers.
• Hearing bones. Tiny ear bones amplify eardrum vibrations; the stapes (stirrup) is the smallest bone, weighing 2 to 4.3 g, about a sugar cube.
• No bones about it. The “funny bone” is the ulnar nerve, next to the humerus.
• Fickle fingers of fate. Each hand has 27 bones, the most complex part of the skeleton.
• Hot muscles. Seven minutes of energetic sport gives off enough heat to boil a litre of water.
• Strong structure. The body’s 206 bones are roughly as strong as the same weight of steel or aluminium.
• Skin deep. Skin the size of a small plaster holds some 163 hairs, 250 oil glands, 1,600 sweat glands and 3,750 nerve receptors.

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What NIH sources confirm

Several facts on the page match the US National Cancer Institute’s SEER anatomy training modules. The adult skeleton usually has 206 named bones [2]. The heart is a four-chambered muscular organ shaped and sized roughly like a closed fist [3]. The liver sits mainly on the right of the abdomen just beneath the diaphragm, is the largest gland in the body, and one of its listed functions is filtering blood [4]. The lymphatic system returns excess fluid to the blood and defends against microorganisms, with lymph nodes filtering lymph and lymphocytes destroying invading organisms [5].

For hearing, the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders explains that the eardrum passes vibrations to three tiny bones, the malleus, incus and stapes, which amplify them and send them to the cochlea [6]. The stapes is the smallest and lightest bone in the body, roughly 2 to 3 mm long [7].

Notes on this infographic

• Urine is not sterile. The “Nice iced” box says fresh urine is completely sterile. A 2021 review in Investigative and Clinical Urology says it was previously believed urine was sterile, but newer research shows the healthy urinary tract contains a host of microorganisms [8]. This page does not repeat the box’s survival claim as advice.
• Stapes weight. The box gives 2 to 4.3 g, “about the same as a sugar cube”. We could not confirm this figure in the sources we opened, which give the bone’s size (about 2 to 3 mm) rather than its weight [7].
• Unverified claims. We have not been able to check the bite force, lifetime food, muscle heat, brain against computer, and stomach acid dissolving metal claims, so they are given only as the book’s own statements.
• Printing slips. The introduction prints “Atrip” and “messagessparking”. The upside-down “29” running head at the foot is the facing page showing through the scan.
• Not medical advice. This is an illustration from a children’s reference book, described here for learning, not for diagnosis or treatment.

Sources

1. Open Library, Stephen Biesty’s More Incredible Cross-Sections, by Stephen Biesty and Richard Platt (Dorling Kindersley).
2. National Cancer Institute SEER Training Modules, Divisions of the Skeleton.
3. National Cancer Institute SEER Training Modules, Structure of the Heart.
4. National Cancer Institute SEER Training Modules, Accessory Organs (liver).
5. National Cancer Institute SEER Training Modules, Introduction to the Lymphatic System.
6. NIDCD, How Do We Hear?.
7. Wikipedia, Stapes.
8. Investigative and Clinical Urology (2021), Urobiome, an outlook on the metagenome of urological diseases (PMC8566783).

Last reviewed 30 October 2026