Biological field that deals with bodily structures as revealed by dissection.
Herophilus first laid the factual groundwork for gross anatomy, the study of structures large enough to see without a microscope. Galen 's ideas were the authority for anatomy in Europe until
including the microtome, which slices specimens into extremely thin sections, and staining
led to the new fields of cytology and histology . Electron microscopy opened up the study of subcellular structures, and {{link=X-ray diffraction">X-ray diffraction gave rise to the new subspecialty of molecular anatomy. Comparative anatomy compares similar structures in different animals to see how they have changed with evolution .