Your Bones

🦴 About your bones (Skeletal system)

Your skeleton is the frame that holds you up, like the beams inside a house. Without it you'd flop like a jellyfish.

Bones are alive. They grow as you grow, fix themselves when they break, and make new blood cells inside them every single second.

A grown-up has 206 bones. A baby starts with even more pieces, and many of them join together as the baby grows.

• Grown-up bones206
• In your hands and feetmore than half
• Longestfemur

• 🦴 Skeleton: Your skeleton is the frame of bones inside you that holds you up and keeps you safe.
• ⛑️ Skull (Cranium): Your skull is a hard bony helmet that keeps your brain safe.
• 😮 Jaw bone (Mandible): Your jaw bone is the bottom part of your face that moves up and down when you talk and chew.
• 🔨 Tiniest bones (Ossicles): Deep inside each ear are three tiny bones that wiggle to help you hear.
• 🧲 Floating bone (Hyoid): The floating bone is a small U-shaped bone in your neck that helps you swallow and talk.
• 🔗 Backbone (Spine): Your backbone is a tall stack of small bones that holds you up and lets you bend.
• 🛡️ Ribs (Rib cage): Your ribs are curved bones that make a cage around your heart and lungs.
• 👔 Breastbone (Sternum): Your breastbone is the flat bone in the middle of your chest, where your ribs join.
• 🤷 Collarbone (Clavicle): Your collarbones are the two bones across the top of your chest that hold your shoulders out.
• 🪽 Shoulder blade (Scapula): Your shoulder blades are two flat, triangle bones on your back that slide when you move your arms.
• 😂 Upper arm bone (Humerus): Your upper arm bone goes from your shoulder to your elbow and helps you lift and throw.
• 🔄 Forearm bones (Radius and ulna): Your forearm has two bones side by side that let you twist your hand over and back.
• ✋ Hand and wrist bones (Carpals, metacarpals and phalanges): Each hand has 27 little bones, so your fingers can wiggle, grab, draw and wave.
• 🥣 Hip bones (Pelvis): Your hip bones make a strong bowl that holds up your body and joins on your legs.
• 🐒 Tailbone (Coccyx): Your tailbone is the tiny bone at the very bottom of your backbone, right where a tail would be.
• 🦵 Thigh bone (Femur): Your thigh bone is the longest, strongest bone in your body, going from your hip to your knee.
• 🧎 Kneecap (Patella): Your kneecap is a small, round bone that sits in front of your knee like a shield.
• ⚽ Shin bone (Tibia): Your shin bone is the big bone in the front of your lower leg that carries your weight.
• 🧷 Calf bone (Fibula): Your calf bone is the thin bone next to your shin bone, on the outside of your leg.
• 🦶 Foot and ankle bones (Tarsals, metatarsals and phalanges): Each foot has 26 bones that work together so you can stand, walk, run and balance.
• 🚪 Joints: A joint is a place where two bones meet, like your knee, so you can bend and move.
• 🦈 Cartilage: Cartilage is smooth, bendy stuff, like the tip of your nose, that cushions and shapes your body.
• 🏭 Bone marrow: Bone marrow is the soft middle of some bones, and it makes new blood for your body.
• 📏 Growing bones (Growth plates): Growth plates are soft spots near the ends of your bones, where your bones grow longer.