The skeletal system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The skeletal system - Essay Example The joints that connect a bone to another bone, a bone to a cartilage or a cartilage with another cartilage are important components of the skeletal system as they are responsible for the mobility of the human body (Skeletal system, n.d). A new born infant usually possess around 230 bones while a fully grown adult will approximately have about 206 bones. The human skeleton is divided into two major components namely the axial and appendicular skeleton. The axial portion comprises about 80 bones which include those in the skull, vertebral column and thoracic cage which comprise the axis of the body. The appendicular portion has about 126 bones, attached to the axial skeleton, which include the different appendages within the body and includes the shoulder girdle, skeletal portions of the upper and lower limb and the pelvic girdle (Skeletal system, n.d; Kulkarni, n.d; Anatomy of the bone, n.d). The human body consists of 5 types of bones which are classified based on their shape and function. These include the long bones whose length is greater than their width such as the limb bones, the short bones with approximately equal length and width include the carpals and tarsals, the flat bones which are attached to muscles s uch as the breast bone mainly protect body organs, the bones of the vertebral and mandibles are irregular in shape and the sesamoid bones which are small and present in the joints such as the knee cap provide protection to the tendons (Kulkarni, n.d; Types of bone, n.d; Anatomy of the bone, n.d).