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Strong enough to protect our vital organs, intricately structured to keep the body upright and flexible enough to allow great freedom of movement - the human skeleton is a marvel of mechanical and architectural design.

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iman bonę is light-enough or our muscles to move it •asily but as strong and concrete. It can support great weights without bending, breaking or being crushed.

Linked by joints and moved by muscles attached at either end, our bones provide both protective cages for our soft and delicate organs and a flexible scaffolding that supports our body.

MULTIPURPOSE

Each of the different pans of the skeleton is designed to do a 'particular job. The skuli cr cranium protects-the brain and also theeyes and ears. The lower jaw and teeth are attached to it. enabling us to chew our food. There arę holes for the eyes, ears, nose and mouth and also one in the base of the skul! where it joins the spina! column.

The spinał córć passes through this, connecting the brain to every other part of the body.

STRONG AND FLEXIBLE

The spine forms the central axis of the skeleton and is madę tip of a chain of smali bones, rather like cotton reels, called vertebrae. It is very strong but becsuse it is madę up of several smali sections instead of one solid piece of bonę, it is also very flexible. This

aliows us .a fuli rangę of    ^    -

movement fromtouching f ^OU ^KjTOUJ^ ^

? A newbom baby has about ?

Did \

our toes to standing upright. We can also

i twist from side to side. \    ³⁵⁰ bones in its body

The vertebrae also' \ whereas an adult has protect the spinał cord    ^on^ ^a^-^,ou^ 206

which passes through the middle of them. Between each

of the vertebrae are discs of cartilage which cushion the vertebrae and protect them from rubbing as we move. The bottgm end of the spinał column is called the coccyx - the remains of what was once a taiL The rib cage is madę j up ofthę ribs, the costaK 4* cartiłages, the breastbone.

or sternum, in the front and the spinał column at the back. It

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A bab/s skeleton scaled up to adult sfce shows how large its.head Is (n relation io Its body. The !ong bones (upper arms and thlgh bones) are much shorter, matóng its arms and legs very short in relation to Its body size.