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How many bones? Every bone in my body
Author(s) -
Neumann Paul E.,
Gest Thomas R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
clinical anatomy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.667
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1098-2353
pISSN - 0897-3806
DOI - 10.1002/ca.23425
Subject(s) - medicine , ossicles , sesamoid bone , anatomy , sternum , human skeleton , sacrum , surgery , radiography , middle ear
Textbooks frequently report that there are 206 human bones, or 200 bones and 6 auditory ossicles. The human bone counts in history and within adulthood were reviewed. Tallies of 197 to 307 bones have been reported over the past several centuries. The relatively low modern reckoning of 206 was due to exclusion of teeth and sesamoid ossicles, and to reassessments of the hyoid, sacrum, coccyx, and sternum as unitary bones. An audit of bone counts during adulthood failed to confirm a rational justification for the total of 206. The number is higher in young adults and lower in the elderly. Difficulties in establishing a definitive bone count include individual differences and the inconsistency of viewing the adult cranium as a collection of 21 bones. Clin. Anat. 33:187–191, 2020. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.