Understanding the Intricacies of the Human Skeletal System

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The skeletal system makes up the framework of our body. Without our skeleton, we would just be piles of organs and muscles with no shape. This system is one of the most important in our bodies because it is the outline that every other system follows. Our skeletal system is like the house that the rest of our systems live in. The skeletal system frames our entire bodies and protects our fragile inner organs. We have two major types of bone in our body: compact bone and spongy bone. Compact bone is dense and looks smooth, while spongy bone is comprised of small needle-like pieces of bone with lots of open spaces. Our body contains 206 bones. The skeleton is separated into axial and appendicular sections. The axial skeleton includes the bones in the longitudinal axis of our body. The appendicular skeleton consists of the limbs and girdles of the body, such as our arms and shoulders. There are four different classifications of bone, determined by their shape. Long bones are shafts with ‘heads’ on both sides. Our limbs contain mostly long bones. Short bones Complete Labeled Skeleton are cubular, and mostly comprised of spongy bone. Wrist and ankle bones are short bones (www2.highlands.edu, The Skeletal System:Macro and Micro Anatomy). Flat bones are usually curved and sandwich spongy bone between two layers of compact bone. These bones can be found in the skull and sternum. …show more content…

All compact bone is made up of cylindrical osteons which are made of concentric rings of matrix called lamellae. Osteons house all the inner workings of bone and the cells within it. Haversian canals run through the hollow middles of osteons and carry blood vessels and nerves into the bone. Running perpendicular to the Haversian canals are Volkmann's canals, “connecting vascular and nerve supplies of periosteum to those in haversian canals and medullary

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