Fun Facts About Skeletons 2019

It’s back to school time and I thought it would be great to kick off the year with some fun facts about human bones. Let’s jump right in!

1. Human adult skeletons are made up of about 206 bones.
2. Babies are born with about 300 bones that began to fuse and harden together at certain suture and joint points as the baby grows into an adult.

   

3. The longest bone in the body is the femur (thigh bone). It’s also the strongest.
4. The smallest bone in the body is the stapes, or stirrups, in the middle ear. It is often very difficult to recover in situ.

   

    

5. The only bone not connected to (articulate with) another bone is the hyoid bone. It’s kept in place by ligaments.
6. Your funny bone is not a bone! That tingly, weird sensation that you get when you bump your elbow is your ulnar nerve being bumped against the long bone in your arm called the humerus.
7. There’s a bone in your skull that has its own saddle! Your skull has about 22 bones. Within the neurocranium, there is a butterfly-shaped bone called the sphenoid. In the middle, or body, of the sphenoid, there is a saddle-shaped depression known as the sella turcica. Sella turcica is Latin for Turkish Saddle as the shape resembles a Turkish saddle. The sella turcica holds the pituitary gland.
8. Men and women typically have 12 pairs of ribs. It is a myth that women have more ribs than men. There are cases in which a person may have one extra or one less rib, but these instances are not specific to a sex.