Skeletal Facts

Big collection of human skeletal facts for kids.

The largest bone of the human skeletal system is the pelvis bone or hip bone. The pelvis is made up of six bones that are joined to each other firmly.

Your nose and ears are not made up of bones. They are made up of cartilage or 'gristle'. It is more lighter and flexible than the bone. Try bending your ear and nose, you will be able to bend them with ease.

Ever wondered, why skeletons have their ears and noses missing? Well, the cartilage in the ears and nose decompose quickly than the bones, thus, leaving the poor skull without ears and nose.

There are 27 bones in the human hand and 14 bones make up your face.

The number of bones in your neck and the number of bones in a giraffe's neck is the same! Do you want to know more about the neck. The article on anatomy of neck will prove useful.

There are about 230 movable and semi-movable joints in your body.

The only bone without a joint is your body is the hyoid bone present in your throat.

Did you know your height depends on the growth of your bones. If you are a girl, your bones will keep growing till you are about 16 years old and the bones of boys grow till they are about 18 years old. Therefore, if you wish to be a tall individual, it is very important to eat healthy foods and drink as your bones need nourishment to grow. If you give your bones the right nourishment, they will grow well, making you tall and good looking.

When you were born you had about 350 brand new bones. Now if you could peek inside yourself you'd count around 206 or so. That's 90 less then what you started with. You know darn well you haven't had any surgery that removed 90 of your bones, and you also know that you were born perfectly healthy. This truly is a mystery, and now you're curious. Well actually it really isn't all that much of a mystery. Many of our bones simply fuse together throughout out lifespan. Part of the reason this happens is so those bones fusing together, can perform the functions we need as adults, which we didn't require as children.

Of the 206 bones in the skeletal system, 52 of them make both our feet.

Our bone is six times stronger than steel if both are of the same weight.

Some of the bones in a child's skeleton are made of cartilage. As children  grow, bone tissue replaces the cartilage. Children's skeletons continue to grow and change until they are about 25 years old.

Unlike an adult skull, the bones of an infant's  skull are separate. The bones eventually grow together as the child develops and immovable joints hold the skull bones together.

A baby's  skeleton is made of about 300 bones at birth. By the time a child reaches adulthood, many of the bones that were separate have fused together. As a result, the adult skeleton has only 206 bones.

Broken bones range from a hairline fracture to a complete fracture, where the bone is broken into two separate pieces. According to KidsHealth, a bowing fracture is a type of fracture that occurs only in children; the bone bends but does not break.

In the Pediatrics article, "Physical Activity and Bone Measures in Young Children: The Iowa Bone Development Study," researchers correlated physical activity to bone-mineral density in young children ages 4 to 6. Children who were more physically active had greater bone mass than their less-active peers. Increased bone mass can result in fewer broken bones.