anatomy · section one
the skeleton
206 bones · 237 joints
Point at the drawing, or search for a bone by any name you know it by. Choosing one marks it in ink and turns everything it joins onto green, because a bone on its own tells you almost nothing — what it does is decided by what it is attached to.
green marks what it joins onto
“femur. two of them.”
appendicular skeleton · leg
Femur
Os femoris · two of them · also called thigh bone, thighbone
It carries your whole body weight between hip and knee and anchors the large muscles that straighten both joints when you stand up, climb or run. Its lower end is easy to find, as the two knobs either side of your kneecap are its base, and the hard lump on the outside of your hip is the flare at its top.
it is close to a quarter of your height, so forensic scientists estimate stature from it alone
what it joins onto
- hip jointsynovial ball-and-socketball-and-socket - swings the thigh in any direction
- patellofemoral jointsynovial planethe kneecap slides along a groove on the bone
- knee jointsynovial modified hingehinge - bends and straightens the knee, with a slight twist
62 entries, 206 bones