Includes the shoulder girdle (made up of the collar bone, shoulder blade and upper limb bones) and the pelvic girdle (made up of pelvis bones, and lower limb or leg bones)

CLAVICLE
     The collar bone is a curved horizontal structure. It gets its name from from a common key found
in Rome. (Clavis is the Latin word for key) At the inner end, the clavical is joined to the breastbone and the outer end (about two centimeters from the point of the shoulder) is attached to the shoulder blade. The clavicle is a horizontal strut that forces the shoulder joint to keep its distance from the breastbone, no matter how varied its movements. You can feel the swing of your clavicle when you shrug your shoulders, bring them forward or back, or when you depress them. When the collarbone breaks the shoulder will collaps inward and these movements will no longer be possible.

SCAPULA
     The scapula, or shoulder blade is a thin triangular shaped bone that is suspended from the outer end of the clavicle. It is covered in heavy, powerful muscles and moves a considerable distance over the upper and back part of the chest. The armpit is where the outside border of the scapula forms the socket portion of the very flexible ball-and-socket joint, which is found between the shoulder blade and upper arm. The arm can move in all directions because of this joint.
     Along the back of the scapula is a projecting edge of bone: the spine of the shoulder blade. As it passes toward the shoulder joint, it becomes more and more prominent until it forms a large bony hood called the acromion process, which protects the vital ball-and-socket joint. The hood ends in a projection. The clavicle is attatched to this.
     Another strong piece of bone also projects from the upper border of the shoulder blade just beside the shoulder joint. It is discribed to have the size and shape of a bent finger or crow's beak, pointing downward. It's called the coracoid process, and muscles stream down the arm from the tip of it. The clavicle is firmly bound to the coracoid process by a strong ligament.

ARM BONES 
     The humerus is the only bone in the upper arm. The ball shaped upper section of the arm forms the ball part of the ball-and-socket shoulder joint. The humerus and the scapula fit together poorly, so four muscles surrounding the shoulder joint are attached to the knob hold the bones into close contact. At first the humerus shaft is cylindrical. But as it approches the elbow it flattens out and expands sideways. There are two joint surfaces, side by side at the expaded end of the humerus. The inner resembles a spool, pully, or hourglass laid on its side. It is known as the trochlea, the Greek word for pully. The inner bone of the forearm, the ulna, hooks onto the trochlea from behind. It is primarily concerned with bending and straightening the elbow, it is thick and massive towards the elbow and tapers to a disklike head at the wrist.
     The radius carries the hand at the wrist, so it's thick and heavy there. But does the opposite of the ulna by narrowing into a disklike head at the elbow instead of the wrist.

HAND BONES
     The wrist consists of eight small bones called carpals that all together make up the carpus. These bones are arranged as four bones in two rows, the lower row supporting the bones that lie in the palm. The varied movement of the carpal bones give the wrist flexibility.
     The bones in the palms of the hands, metacarpals, are arrayed side by side like the sticks of a fan. Their square bases can move little but are still in contact with eachother. Thier rounded heads form knuckles, which are not in contact. Between each one, little tendons run to reach the free fingers.
     The phalanges are located in the finger bones. Each finger has three bones, but the thumb has two. These bones are flat in front but rounded behind. The bases of all the first phalanges rest on the knuckles of the hand. It is at this point where the fingers can be bent, spread apart or brought together. The other joints only permit bending and straightening, seving as hinges. The phalanges farthest from the knuckles are called terminal, they have triangular tips to support the fingernails.

HIP BONES
     The hip, or flank, bone is so different in shape that it gets the scientific name of  'innominate bone' from the Latin "os innominatum" in English meaning "Bone without a name". It consists of two symmetrical halves attached above to the sacrum and belowat the crotch. Three sets of bone make up the hip bone: the ilia, the ischia and the pubes (plural for pubis).
     The two ilia are the top most bones of the hip. Each ilium being a large curved structure. It is
attached to the sacrum at the sacroiliac joint. When we place our hands on our hips, the ilia bones are what we feel. The large surfaces of the ilia bones are used to protect the lower abdominal organs. 
     As it decends, the ilium narrows toward a cup like structre approximatly 5 cm in diameter. this
circular socket is known as the acetabulum. The acetabulum recieves the rounded head of the thigh bone and with it forms the hip joint, the most secure ball-and-socket joint in the body. Like the ilia, there are two acetabulm, one on each side of the body. The ilia are very strong, transmitting the weight of the body to the legs. 
     The ischium runs vertically downward from the acetabulum. It is the bone we use to sit on when we sit up straight. It merges with a bony ring named the pubis. The three sets of bone- the ilia, the ischia and the pubes- together with the sacrum form a bony basin, with the bottom knocked out, known as the pelvis. Its deep cavity houses the reproductive organs as well as the lower parts of the digestive and urinary systems.

LEG BONES

     The kneecap, or patella, is a small triangular bone located in front of the lower end of the femur. It's imbedded in the thick tendon that passes over the knee from the femur to the lower leg. The kneecap is built to slide down the femur when the leg is bent to protect the widely gaping knee joint.
     The femur, better known as the thigh bone, is the largest bone in the human body. It's neck, being the upper eight centimeters of the cylindrical shaft, is bent inward and is surmounted with a bony ball, or head, which fits nicely into the acetabulum. As the femur gets closer to the knee it expands sideways into a pair of prominences known as condyles. Condyles rest and move on top of the tibia, the stout inner bone of the leg.
     There are two bones in the leg, just as there are two in the forearm. The inner one is named the tibia, it is very stout and strong. Alone it recieves and transmits weight. The outer bone, the fibula, on the other hand is thin and delicate. It rests in a hollow at the ankle joint and is bound very firmly to it. Beyond the hollow, the fibula projects downward as a flange- the bump we can see and feel on the outside of our ankles- where it forms an important side support for the ankle joint. The fibula is not connected to the knee joint.
     The tibia is flat on top and supports the condyles of the femur. It is held very firmly to the
condyles by strong ligaments. As the tibia descends, its shaft tapers. Below, it expands to take part in the ankle joint. The flanges of the fibula and the tibia hold the talus- the topmost bone of the foot- as in a vise.
     At the ankle joint the foot is able to bend up or down but the is usually no motion from side to side. A severe twist to the ankle can break either flange, but usually that of the fibula.

FOOT BONES 
     The talus is the uppermost bone of the foot. It rests below the heel bone, or the calcaneus, which takes most of the strain when we stad or walk. It does ot rest squarely on the calcaneus. The front part forms a rouded head that projects beyond the calcaneus towards the iner side of the foot. The talus, calcaneusm and the five small bones in front of them are called the tarsals. In frot of the tarsals are metatarsals and phalages, comparable to the ones of the hand.
     The head of the talus is the keystone in a high arch that gives a spring to our walk. If the head
were to lose support of the ligaments and muscles, it sinks down and the feet would become painfully flat. This is known as fallen arches or flat feet.
     The heel and the little toe of the advanced foot receive the weight of the body. The big toe is what gives the thrust to propel the body forward. If the arch begins to fall, the effort required to give this forward thrust becomes painful. To avoid the pain the sufferer will begin to shuffle with their feet turned outward.