caudalis

Caudalis is a Latin adjective meaning “of the tail” or “caudal.” In scientific terminology it is used to describe structures, directions, or traits toward the posterior end or tail region. The term appears in anatomy, zoology, and paleontology, among other fields.

In practice, caudalis is combined with a noun to specify what is tail-related. For example, nucleus caudalis refers to the caudal portion of a cranial nerve nucleus in neuroanatomy, and extremitas caudalis denotes the tail-end part of an organ. In vertebrates, caudal or caudalis indicates direction toward the tail, opposite of cranial or rostral.

As a nomenclatural element, caudalis may appear as a species or subspecies epithet describing a tail feature such as length or appendages. The Latin form persists in many scientific names even as readers commonly use the English equivalent caudal.

Related terms include cranialis, rostralis, and caudatus; the preferred English equivalent is caudal. The term is primarily encountered in formal taxonomic descriptions, anatomical atlases, and neuroanatomical texts.