Human Physiology

Lesson 10 : Bones Classification

Introduction

The human skeleton is made up of 206 bones, arranged in an orderly fashion and providing support and protection for the body. Each bone is made up of several tissues, including blood vessels, fibrous tissue, cartilage and bone tissue itself. Bone is a hard tissue which provides the strength to the skeleton. Without the skeleton one cannot imagine as how to sit, stand, walk or run as and when we require doing so. A peculiar shape or configuration given to various body parts is largely contributed by our skeleton.

Interesting features are:

• Over half the body’s bones are present in wrists, hands and fingers and the ankles, feet and toes.
• The longest bone is the femur, which makes up one forth of the body’s height.
• The widest bone in the body is the pelvis.
• The smallest bone, the stapes in the ear (2.5 mm).