The human skeleton and skeletons of other vertebrates

The vertebrate body plan (humans, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish) is based on an internal skeleton (connected bones) with muscles pulling on bones across joints. Simple unlabeled illustrations of the human skeleton can be found by typing into your browser: human skeleton illustration

An illustration of the human skeleton in which you can click on various points for detailed illustrations of particular parts can be found at:

http://www.innerbody.com/image/skelfov.html

Have students note the structure of different joints and analyze how that structure allows the range of motions that we are able to perform but limits the motions we can’t perform.

Skeletons of other vertebrates can be found by typing into you browser:

_____ skeleton (enter the name of the vertebrate animal in the blank)

Have students note and discuss the similarity among all vertebrate skeletons. (Post questions/comments)