The blog
Short, curious notes about what bones do, why their names make sense, and how to remember them. Every anatomical claim is checked against published sources.
File 16 · Latest
The fibula takes a small share of the load through your lower leg, about 6 to 17 percent in cadaver studies, and the textbooks round that to none.
Open the case file: The fibula carries almost no weight, so why does your ankle need it?The archive
The hyoid is a small U-shaped bone at the front of your neck, just under the jaw, and it is the only bone in the body that does not meet another bone.
Open the case file: The hyoid, the one bone that touches no other
The mandible is your lower jaw, and it is the only bone of the skull that moves.
Open the case file: The mandible, the only bone in the skull that moves
Medial means toward the middle of the body and lateral toward the side, superior means higher up and inferior lower down.
Open the case file: Medial, lateral, superior, inferior: four words to learn before anything else makes sense
The axial skeleton is the head, neck, chest and back, 80 bones in the adult count.
Open the case file: Axial and appendicular: the two halves of the skeleton, and why the split exists
Most people have 24 ribs in 12 pairs, and a small number are born with an extra one or one fewer.
Open the case file: Does everyone have the same number of ribs?
A sesamoid bone forms inside a tendon.
Open the case file: Sesamoid bones: the extra bones some people have and others do not
Ethan's Fried Spanish Pasta Tempted Octavia gives you six words for eight bones, because two of the names are pairs.
Open the case file: The cranial bones mnemonic, and where each of the eight sits
Some Lovers Try Positions That They Can't Handle gives you eight initials in order.
Open the case file: The carpal bones mnemonic, and what the eight names actually mean
The collarbone breaks so often because of one stretch about halfway along it, where the bone is thinnest and no ligament is holding on.
Open the case file: The clavicle, and why the collarbone breaks so often
The adult skull has 22 bones, 8 around the brain and 14 in the face. You will also see 28 and 29, and neither is a mistake.
Open the case file: How many bones are in the skull? It depends how you count
A break heals in four overlapping stages: a clot, a bridge of cartilage, a rough collar of new bone, then years of quiet reshaping.
Open the case file: How a broken bone heals, in four stages
Recognition is picking the answer out when it is already in front of you. Recall is producing it with nothing to point at.
Open the case file: Recognition versus recall: why you can point at a bone but cannot name it
Proximal means nearer the point where a limb attaches to the trunk, and distal means farther from it.
Open the case file: Proximal and distal: the two words on nearly every scan report
The skeleton holds you up, and it also moves you, shields the brain and heart, makes your blood cells and keeps most of your calcium in reserve.
Open the case file: What the skeleton is for, beyond holding you up
A newborn has roughly 270 bones and an adult has 206, and nothing gets thrown away in between.
Open the case file: Why babies have around 270 bones and adults end up with 206The lab
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