Dem Bones Trivia Quiz

Answer:

The adult human skeleton consists of 206 bones. A baby's body has many more bones (c. 300), but many of these are made of cartilage. As we grow, many of our bones fuse to leave us with the 206 of an adult.

These bones can be divided up into the axial and appendicular skeletons. The former consists of the vertebral column and the skull; the latter of the pelvic (hip) and pectoral (shoulder) girdles, and the bones of the limbs. Some authorities propose a third division called the visceral skeleton, comprising the lower jaw, some elements of the upper jaw and the branchial arches, including the hyoid bone.

There are an astonishing 106 bones in the hands and feet combined.

Ligaments join bones together and tendons join bones to muscles. Cartilage is a flexible rubbery substance (gristle in the meat we eat) that protects our bones in joint areas where they would otherwise rub against each other.

Of the correct answers, parietal, ethmoid, occipital and sphenoid are all cranial bones; the hyoid bone is in the neck; stapes and incus are in the middle ear; the vomer separates the nasal cavities: the zygomatic arch is the cheekbone; the maxilla is the upper jaw; the metatarsals form the forefoot; and the patella is a sesamoid bone (embedded in a tendon) at the front of the knee.

The six red herrings are teres, sigmoid, cremaster, gastrocnemius, masseter' and parotid. Teres is a muscle in the upper arm sigmoid is part of the colon, cremaster is the involuntary muscle responsible for the cremasteric reflex which raises and lowers the testicles, gastrocnemius is a calf muscle, masseter is a muscle that closes the jaw in chewing, and parotid is a salivary gland.

The title of the quiz is taken from a spiritual song first recorded by The Famous Myers Jubilee Singers in 1928.