Abstract
The heads of three loggerhead sea turtles were disarticulated and imaged immediately to minimize postmortem changes and then frozen
and sectioned. For computed tomography (CT) imaging, the heads were positioned in ventral recumbency. Transverse CT images
with soft-tissue window were obtained from the olfactory sac region to the temporomandibular joint region. After CT imaging, the heads
were sectioned and the gross sections were compared to CT images, to assist in the accurate identification of the anatomic structures.
Different clinically relevant anatomic structures were identified and labelled in two series of photographs (CT images and anatomic
cross-sections). CT images provided good differentiation between the bones and the soft tissues of the head. The information presented
in this paper should serve as an initial reference to evaluate CT images of the head of the loggerhead sea turtle and to assist in the interpretation
of lesions of this region.
2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.