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Anatomy is the oldest and most basic of medical disciplines, dating back to the era of Aristotle and Soccrates. It is also very contentious, especially when it comes to the dissection of the human body for training purposes. The utilization of human material falls under the legal and statutory requirements of the National Health Act of 2003 and as such is very stringently controlled.

On a tuition level, Anatomy and Histology is involved in the training of undergraduate students in all disciplines at the FMHS as well as postgraduate (MMed) students in Psychiatry, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Radiodiagnosis, Nuclear medicine and MChD in Maxillo-Facial-Oral Surgery, Orthodontics, Periodontics, Prostodontics.  Teaching facilities include lecture halls, an Undergraduate Microscopy Laboratory equipped 142 microscopes for student use. Dissection Halls with cadavers, Lodox^(R) statscan^(R) images of each cadaver as well as articulated skeletons to assist medical students in learning practical Anatomy.

In the research field, we have BSc Honours, MSc and PhD students in various research disciplines. Research Groups include: Comparative Anatomy, Medical Education,  Biological- and Forensic Anthropology and Clinical Variation Anatomy.

The core research facilities include: a Research Microscopy Laboratory housing various microscopy systems that can assist researchers in image analysis, fluorescent microscopy, stereo microscopy as well as a state of the art inverted laser dissection microscope system; The Kirsten Skeletal Collection with osteological material of at least 680 complete individuals and some incomplete skeletons; a Cell Culture Laboratory; and a fully equipped Research Histology Laboratory.

The Kirsten Anatomy Museum has been converted into a Museum for Medical Morphological Sciences (a first in Africa) where exhibits in Anatomy, Pathology, Biological Anthropology, Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, Medical History, Orthopaedics, Histology, Forensic Science, Parasitology and Paleontology are on display.