Functions of Bones
Bones serve three major functions in the skeletal system; they act as levers, they store minerals, and they are the site of red blood cell formation. Bones can be classified into five categories
- Long Bones: aid in locomotion, store minerals, and act as levers. They are found mainly in the limbs.
- Short Bones: Absorb concussion. Found in joints such as the knee, hock, and fetlock.
- Flat Bones: Enclose body cavities containing organs. The ribs are examples of flat bones.
- Irregular Bones: Protect the central nervous system. The vertebral column consists of irregular bones.
- Sesamoids: Bones embedded within a tendon. The horse's proximal digital sesamoids are simply called the "sesamoid bones" by horsemen, his distal digital sesamoid is referred to as the navicular bone.
Ligaments and tendons hold the skeletal system together. Ligaments hold bones to bones and tendons hold bones to muscles. Synovial membranes are found in joint capsules, where they contain synovial fluid, which lubricates joints. Bones are covered by a tough membrane called periosteum, which covers the entire bone excluding areas of articulation.
Read more about this topic: Skeletal System Of The Horse
Famous quotes containing the words functions of, functions and/or bones:
“One of the most highly valued functions of used parents these days is to be the villains of their children’s lives, the people the child blames for any shortcomings or disappointments. But if your identity comes from your parents’ failings, then you remain forever a member of the child generation, stuck and unable to move on to an adulthood in which you identify yourself in terms of what you do, not what has been done to you.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)
“The mind is a finer body, and resumes its functions of feeding, digesting, absorbing, excluding, and generating, in a new and ethereal element. Here, in the brain, is all the process of alimentation repeated, in the acquiring, comparing, digesting, and assimilating of experience. Here again is the mystery of generation repeated.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“that skeleton wearing his bones like a broiler,
or his righteousness like a swastika.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)