The Human Skeleton

The skeleton maintains a body shape, protectsvital organs, and provides a system of muscle levers that allow body movement.

Humans (and some other animals) have bony skeletons inside their bodies which grow.

Without our bones, we couldn't stand, walk, run, or even sit.

How many bones does the human body contain?

An adult skeleton contains 206 bones and the skeleton of an infant contains 350. As a child grows, bones fuse (join) together to make longer bones.

What is the longest bone?

The longest bone in our bodies is the femur (thigh bone).

What and where is the smallest bone?

The smallest bone is the stirrup bone inside the ear.

How many bones in a hand?

There are 27 bones in the human hand. The carpus or wrist has account for 8; the metacarpus or palm contains 5; the remaining 14 are digital bones; fingers and thumb.

What do the bones do?

Our bones provide support for our bodies and help form our shape.

They protect our organs against injury and enable us to move.

Some bones protect parts of the body, as the skull protects the brain, whilst others work together to make body parts move, such as the arm and leg bones.

Bones manufacture blood cells and store important minerals.

Joints

Bones are connected to other bones at joints.

There are many diffrent kinds of joints including:

• fixed joints (such as in the skull),
• hinged joints (such as in the fingers and toes), and
• ball-and-socket joints (such as the shoulders and hips).
  

Picture of a skeleton hand

Wrist X-ray

Knee Joint

Knee X-ray

Other X-ray images of the human skeleton
Includes: Shoulder, Elbow, Forearm, Wrist, Hand, Pelvis, Knee, Ankle and Foot

Haunted House
An interactive journey identifying the bones that make up the human skeleton and
how they work together. Click here to start playing

Human Skeleton
Information about our skeleton (includes diagram).

Can you label the bones of a human Skeleton?

Your Skeleton
Wait for the pictures to load.

Joints Explorer from the Royal Institution's Inside Out website.
Watch the skeleton move

Interactive Skeleton
Do you know the different names of the bones and where they are in your body?

Take the Skeleton Quiz

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