Medically reviewed by Jennifer Steinhoff, MD Key Takeaways The thoracic spine is made up of 12 bones that attach to your ribs ...

Like Indiana Jones, thresher sharks have mastered the art of the whip using their tails. Now, new research provides intricate details showing that vertebrae anatomy might support the mechanics of ...

The lumbar vertebrae are the largest movable bones of the backbone. Their large size and bone strength is necessary because these vertebrae support more weight than the upper two segments of the ...

In Panderichthids (rhipidistian fish ancestors of amphibians), 2 sets of ossifications are present in the centra region. At posterior end, below the neural arch, are pleurocentra. This element gave ...

Differences in numbers of vertebrae are most extreme in mammals which do not rely on running and leaping, such as those adapted to suspensory locomotion like apes and sloths, a team of anthropologists ...

Though both giraffes and humans have the same number of individual neck bones (known as vertebrae), the two species also have size and structural differences. Just like humans, giraffes are said to ...

A pinched nerve in the upper back occurs when force or pressure irritates a nerve in this part of the body. Nerves make up the “wiring” system that carries messages between the brain and the rest of a ...

A three-quarter view of a micro-CT scanned vertebral column segment and a single micro-CT scanned vertebra of a common thresher shark. In the thresher column, the frontmost vertebra is a transverse ...