Notes

Your skeletal system is important because some, like your backbone, provide the structure which enables you to stand erect instead of lying like a puddle on the floor. Other bones protect the delicate, and sometimes soft, insides of your body. Your skull, a series of fused bones, acts like a hard protective helmet for your brain. The bones, or vertebrae, of your spinal column surround your spinal cord, a complex bundle of nerves. Imagine what could happen to your heart and lungs without the protective armor of your rib cage. When you were born you had over 300 bones. As you grew, some of these bones began to fuse together. The result? An adult has only 206 bones. Babies have more bones because they need to grow and over time the bones will fuse together to make you bigger. We need calcium to bake our bone grow and become stronger. We can get it through the food that we eat.The femur is the longest bone in your body and is located in your thigh. The stirrup bone is the smallest bone in your body, it is located behind your eardrum. most of your bones are located in your wrists and hands. If humans didn’t have bones they would be a puddle of mush and we wouldn’t be able to move. Bones have two purposes. Some, like your backbone, provide the structure which enables you to stand erect instead of lying like a puddle on the floor. Other bones protect the delicate, and sometimes soft, insides of your body. Your skull, a series of fused bones, acts like a hard protective helmet for your brain. The bones, or vertebrae, of your spinal column surround your spinal cord, a complex bundle of nerves. You need muscles to pull on bones so that you can move. Along with muscles and joints, bones are responsible for you being able to move. Your muscles are attached to bones. When muscles contract, the bones to which they are attached act as levers and cause various body parts to move.