So the axial skeleton.

Again, the skeleton is all 214 bones.

The axial skeleton is the central part of it, the axis of the skeleton.
And it was, again, skull, mandible, hyoid, larynx, vertebrae, cervical,
thoracic, lumbar, and sacrum, and little coccygeal vertebrae,
the sternum anteriorly, and the ribs attaching
between the vertebrae posteriorly and the sternum anteriorly.
The other division of the skeleton is the appendicular skeleton,
and another term for the upper and the lower limb-- a generic term--
is the "appendages."
So each of the limbs we'll go over in more detail as we come to the cases.
But always, always we're trying to give you an overview, a blueprint
to make the rest of the learning easier for you.
So we'll talk about the appendicular skeleton
in more detail for each of the cases.
But for now, I'd like to just give you a big overview
and some nice general principles.
So you learned the vocabulary term at the beginning of this learning
session, which was the "girdle." and there are two girdles-- one
for each limb.
So the limb girdle for the upper limb is the "shoulder girdle."
The limb girdle for the lower limb is the "pelvic girdle."
So the upper limb is adapted for mobility.
So we could do a huge number of things with our upper limb
that we can't do with the lower limb, and so that's a very slight attachment.
That's going to have important implications in one of our cases
because every anatomical adaptation is a trade-off usually
between different things.
And so the trade-off for the limbs is between mobility,
which is what the upper limb is specialized to do,
and stability, which is what the lower limb is specialized to do.
So for the limb girdles, the only bony attachment,
the only real bony joint between the upper limb and the axial skeleton
is right here at the sternum.
So the scapula and the clavicle can move all over the chest, restrained only
by the sternoclavicilar joint.
The anatomy of the lower limb girdle-- the pelvic girdle-- is very different.
The pelvic girdle, instead of being adapted for mobility,
is adapted for stability.
And so as we'll see later on in more detail,
the pelvis consists of three bones that are actually fused together.
So instead of having joints between them,
they're fused to form a single, sturdy unit for weight-bearing.
So those are the bones of the upper limb girdle-- the shoulder girdle--
the bones of the lower limb girdle-- the pelvic girdle.
And the girdles are how the limbs themselves
attach to the axial skeleton.
In a previous learning session, you learned
that the regions of the upper limb-- the arm or brachium-- the forearm--
or antebrachium-- and the wrist and hand and at the regions of the lower
limb, the thigh, the leg-- or crus-- the ankle in the foot.
And there will be important similarities between the bones, for example,
in the brachium and the thigh and the bones of the crus and the antebrachium.
There will be one bone in the brachium and one bone in the thigh.
In the upper limb, the bone will be the humerus.
In the lower limb, the bone will be the femur.
If we move to the antebrachium in the upper limb
and the crus in the lower limb, there will be two bones.
The bones in the upper limb will be the radius and the ulna.
The bones in the lower limb will be the tibia and fibula.
So one bone in the brachium and the thigh.
Two bones in the forearm and the crus.
And then, in the rest of the ankle, there will be a number of bones.
So in the hand, there will be a carpus-- including eight bones.
And in the foot, there will be seven tarsal bones.
And then another very quick Greek lesson is that "meta" means "beyond."
So if we have carpals in the hand, the series of bones
immediately beyond that that you can see in this diagram
will be the "metacarpals"-- the five bones beyond that.
And this pattern will be true in both the upper limb and the lower limb.
So in the hand, the bones would be the "carpals" and the "metacarpals."
In the foot, the bones will be the "tarsals" and the "metatarsals."
Articulating with the metacarpals or the metatarsals
will be bones called "phalanges," and "phalanges"
is a Greek word that means "a line of soldiers."
So each of the metatarsals will have a line of soldiers
beyond that and a line of soldiers beyond that.
In the thumb, we have only two phalanges-- proximal and distal.
In the remaining digits-- digits two to five-- we'll have three in each digit.
Same thing in the foot.
Proximal, middle, and distal phalanges in toes two to five,
and just proximal and distal in the hallux.
So the fancy name for the thumb-- the anatomical name for the thumb--
is the "pollex," and the fancy anatomical name for the big toe
is the "hallux."
So those are the bones in the limb segments of the upper and lower limbs.
And then there's another kind of bone, which is an interesting bone,
and that's called a "sesamoid bone."
So a "sesamoid bone" is a secondary bone which forms in a tendon.
The largest sesamoid bone in your body is your patella,
which forms in the big tendon that goes from the thigh down into the crus.