We make a historical review of the Congresses of Anatomy of the Southern Cone. At the beginning of the year 1999, an agreement was established between the «Sociedad Chilena de Anatomía» and the «Asociación Rioplatense se Anatomía» to jointly conduct the scientific congresses of both societies. A few months later, also at the proposal of Drs. Mariano del Sol and Ricardo Losardo, a new entity was requested to be called initially “Congress of Anatomists of the Southern Cone”, whose purpose would be to gather not only Argentine, Uruguayan and Chilean anatomists, but also incorporate morphologists from other countries in South America, including Brazilians and Paraguayans. In this way, the joint realization of the three congresses (Chilean, Rioplatense and the Southern Cone) began with a massive participation of the morphologists of numerous countries of our continent. The "Congresses of Anatomy of the Southern Cone" (so called since the II Congress held in Chile) have normally been held every year, often jointly with the Argentine, Chilean, Brazilian and Pan American Congresses of Anatomy, among other events. Upon the 21st anniversary of the beginning of this fruitful and beneficial scientific union we wanted to capture in this article the origins of these Congresses of Anatomy of the Southern Cone, as well as the reasons that led to its creation. Likewise, the meetings held in the first 21 years (1999-2019) were listed, indicating their dates, headquarters and presidents.

KEY WORDS: Anatomy; Southern Cone Anatomy Congress; History of Anatomy; Anatomy Societies.