SKELETAL

Skeleton Functions

The skeleton serves as a support for the body, provides attachment points for muscles, supplies calcium to the blood, and is important in blood cell formation.

Exoskeleton

A type of skeleton with hardened structures that provide external protection, poorly developed in frogs and toads.

Endoskeleton

A type of skeleton found in frogs/toads, consisting mainly of bone and cartilage.

Muscle Attachment

Muscles are attached to bones by tendons, with a broad, flat tendon called an aponeurosis.

Naming Muscles

Muscles are named based on factors like attachments, shape, size, fiber direction, and action.

Axial Endoskeleton

Central endoskeletal structures including the skull, visceral skeleton, vertebral column, ribs, and sternum.

Appendicular Endoskeleton

Endoskeletal structures in the extremities including girdles, bones of limbs (forelimbs and hindlimbs).

Visceral Skeleton

Derived from gill arches, includes upper/lower jaws, hyoid apparatus, and cartilages supporting the larynx.

Vertebral Column

Specialized structure with ten vertebrae including the atlas and urostyle.

Pectoral Girdle

Supports forelimbs and attaches to the sternum.

Pelvic Girdle

Supports hindlimbs, each half called an innominate bone.

Bones of Limbs

Includes humerus, radioulna, carpals, metacarpals, phalanges (forelimbs) and femur, tibiofibula, tarsals, metatarsals, phalanges (hindlimbs).

Ventral Muscles

Muscles of the head, trunk, thigh, and shank including mylohyoid, pectoralis, sartorius, and gastrocnemius.

Dorsal Muscles

Muscles of the head, trunk, thigh, and shank including longissimus dorsi, triceps femoris, and gluteus.