Bones and Joints

Axial Skeleton

Central axis of body

It is the skull, spine, ribs and sternum

• it main job is to protect the vital organs

Appendicular

There are the appendages plus girdles that attach them to the axial skeleton

• Pectoral Girdle: Your shoulder bones (collarbone and shoulder blade). They encircle the top of the ribs to attach to your arms

• Pelvic Girdle: Hip bone. They encircle the lower spine to attach your legs

Long Bones

Longer than they are wide

• Femur in thigh

• Humerus in arm

Short Bone

Cube shaped; about as wide as they are long

• small carpal bone in wrist

Flat Bone

Thin, flattened and usually a bit curved

• Plates of your skull

• Sternum

Irregular Bones

Weird, complex shapes that don’t fit other rules

• Vertebrae in your spine

Sesamoid Bones

Shapes like a sesame seed, these are unique becuase they grow directly inside a tendon to protect it from heavy wear and tear

• Patella

• Kneecap

Fissure

A narrow slit between adjacent part of the bones

• fissure like a crack in a pavement or a narrow slit in a wall

• it a long, narrow gap where nerves or blood vessels can slip through

Foramen

Opening through which blood vessels, nerves or ligament pass

• think foramen as standard, usually circular, hole drilled straight though a bone

Meatus

A tubelike opening

• While doormen is just a hole, a meatus is a tube or a tunnel

• external auditory meatus

Fossa

A shallow depression

• Imagine pressing your thumb into a piece of soft clay, that smooth shallow dip left behind is a fossa

• They are often used as smooth surfaces where another bone can rest to form a join, or where a muscle can sit comfortably

Sulcus

A furrow along a bone surface that accommodate a blood vessel, nerve or tendon

• think of a sulcus like a trench or dried up riverbed. It is a long groove carved into the surface of the bone that acts as a secure track for a tendon blood or blood vessel to run along so it doesn’t slide out of place