Distribution of Bones in the Human Skeleton

About This Dataset

How the 206 bones of the adult human skeleton are shared across the body's regions. The limbs dominate the count: the arms and legs together contain more than 120 of the body's bones, mostly in the intricate hands and feet.

✨ AI Insight

The 206-bone total is heavily weighted toward the limbs: the upper limbs with the shoulder girdle (64) and the lower limbs with the pelvic girdle (62) together account for 126 bones - more than 60% of the whole skeleton - driven by the many small bones of the hands and feet. The axial skeleton is far more economical: the vertebral column (26), thoracic cage (25) and skull (22) are each built from a modest number of larger bones. The extremes are striking: the ear ossicles contribute 6 tiny bones and the hyoid just 1, the only bone in the body not joined to any other. The pattern reflects a design trade-off - dexterous extremities need many jointed bones, while the protective core needs fewer, sturdier ones.

Source: Wikipedia - Human Skeleton

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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Upper limbs & shoulder girdle leads with 64 in All Time.

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Average value in All Time: 29 · median: 25.

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Gap in All Time: Upper limbs & shoulder girdle is 64× larger than Hyoid.