Foundational Model of Anatomy
Encyclopedia
The Foundational Model of Anatomy Ontology or the FMA, is a reference ontology
for the domain of anatomy
. It is a symbolic representation of the canonical, phenotypic structure of an organism
; a spatial-structural ontology of anatomical entities and relations which form the physical organization of an organism at all salient levels of granularity
.
Ontology (computer science)
In computer science and information science, an ontology formally represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the relationships between those concepts. It can be used to reason about the entities within that domain and may be used to describe the domain.In theory, an ontology is...
for the domain of anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
. It is a symbolic representation of the canonical, phenotypic structure of an organism
Organism
In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homoeostasis as a stable whole.An organism may either be unicellular or, as in the case of humans, comprise...
; a spatial-structural ontology of anatomical entities and relations which form the physical organization of an organism at all salient levels of granularity
Granularity
Granularity is the extent to which a system is broken down into small parts, either the system itself or its description or observation. It is the "extent to which a larger entity is subdivided...
.