Naming Major Bones
Identify major bones and bone groups: skull, spine with vertebrae, ribcage, pelvis, femur and humerus. Explain three skeleton roles: supporting body shape, protecting organs and helping movement with muscles.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name and locate at least six major bones or bone groups on a diagram or their own body
- Explain three skeleton roles: support gives the body shape, protection includes the skull around the brain and ribs around the heart and lungs, and movement uses muscles pulling on bones
- State that not all animals have an inside skeleton made of bones: crabs have exoskeletons, and many snails have protective shells
1 · Read
In Bones & Muscles, you learned that bones make up your skeleton. Some names describe single bones; others describe groups of bones.
The skull is a bone group that surrounds and protects your brain. Your spine runs down your back and includes small bones called vertebrae. The ribcage protects your heart and lungs in your chest. The pelvis is a bone group at your hips; the femur is in your thigh.
Each upper arm has one humerus, from shoulder to elbow. Each thigh has one femur, from hip to knee. The femur is your longest bone. Count left and right separately when counting individual bones.
Three skeleton jobs are support, protection and movement. Support gives your body shape. The skull and ribcage protect organs. Muscles pull on bones for movement, as when you kick a ball.
Animals have different body supports. A crab has a hard outer skeleton called an exoskeleton. Many snails have protective shells. Neither has an inside skeleton made of bones.
Skull, spine, ribcage and pelvis name bone groups. The femur is in your thigh; the humerus is in your upper arm. Bones support, protect and work with muscles for movement.
Lesson, questions and study cards written for this dataset.
Readings written for this dataset using supplied OpenStax records for background facts. The referenced TED-Ed video is credited to Gurpreet Baht and Natalie Pang.
More to read
Where is the hard support?
Compare a person and a crab. A person's bones are inside the body. A crab's hard outer covering is an exoskeleton. It helps support and protect the crab.
Many snails have protective shells around part of their soft bodies. A shell is not a set of human-like bones. These animals show why we cannot say every animal has an inside skeleton made of bones.
A pull that moves a bone
Hold your arm in a comfortable position and bend your elbow gently. Muscles pull on bones to make that movement happen.
The upper arm bone is the humerus. It reaches from shoulder to elbow. At the elbow, it meets bones of the lower arm. A place where bones meet is called a joint.
Bones and muscles mean different things: bones provide support, while muscles supply the pull for movement.
A name is not always one bone
The word 'skull' names a group of bones. So do 'ribcage' and 'pelvis'. The spine also contains many bones, including vertebrae.
A femur is one bone in a thigh. A humerus is one bone in an upper arm. You have these bones on both sides of your body.
When counting individual bones, count each side. Naming the humerus in both arms names two bones, even though you use the same bone name.
Finding the six names
Point to your head, chest, back and hips. These places help you remember the skull, ribcage, spine and pelvis.
Now point to an upper arm and a thigh. The upper arm contains a humerus. The thigh contains a femur.
Use location to check a claim. A thigh bone cannot be the pelvis, because the pelvis is the bone group at your hips. The thigh bone is the femur.
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