What’s on the The Skeleton poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
The adult skeleton has 206 bones in two divisions: the axial skeleton down the midline, and the appendicular skeleton of the limbs and the girdles that attach them.
- Axial (80): skull, spine, ribs, sternum.
- Appendicular (126): arms, legs, shoulder and pelvic girdles.
- The spine has 33 vertebrae: 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, then the fused sacrum…
- The femur is the longest and strongest bone; the stapes in the ear is the smallest.
- Babies are born with about 270 bones; many fuse during growth.
- Over half of all bones are in the hands and feet — 27 in each hand, 26 in each foot.
- Adult bones — 206
- Vertebrae — 33
- Ribs — 24 (12 pairs)
- Seven cervical vertebrae — the same number in a human neck as in a giraffe's.
Bone is living tissue: it remodels constantly, and load is what keeps it dense.
Questions about the The Skeleton poster
- What’s on the The Skeleton poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. The adult skeleton has 206 bones in two divisions: the axial skeleton down the midline, and the appendicular skeleton of the limbs and the girdles that attach them. Axial (80): skull, spine, ribs, sternum.; Appendicular (126): arms, legs, shoulder and pelvic girdles.; The spine has 33 vertebrae: 7 cervical, 12 thoracic, 5 lumbar, then the fused sacrum…; The femur is the longest and strongest bone; the stapes in the ear is the smallest.; Babies are born with about 270 bones; many fuse during growth.; Over half of all bones are in the hands and feet — 27 in each hand, 26 in each foot.; Adult bones — 206; Vertebrae — 33; Ribs — 24 (12 pairs); Seven cervical vertebrae — the same number in a human neck as in a giraffe's.. Bone is living tissue: it remodels constantly, and load is what keeps it dense.
- Who is the The Skeleton poster for?
- The Skeleton belongs to the Body & health section rather than to a school year, because health is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning anatomy can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the The Skeleton poster?
- Learn the groups before the individual bones. Twenty-nine skull bones are easier as one group. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so The Skeleton belongs on the wall where that health work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with The Skeleton?
- Blood, Blood Types and The Body Systems sit alongside The Skeleton in the Body & health section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.BloodBlood TypesThe Body Systems
- Is the The Skeleton poster free to download and print?
- Yes. The Skeleton downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Body & health section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the The Skeleton poster print at?
- The Skeleton is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of The Skeleton loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside The Skeleton on the same wall.
Browse every Body & health poster, or start from the full catalogue.