Two years into an Arctic expedition, they were forced to abandon ship a thousand miles north of Siberia. The Best Nonfiction Books of 2014 William OâConnor December 14, 2014 Going to the library was like a treasure hunt, an expedition.
The vertebral column, also known as the backbone or spine, is part of the axial skeleton. The vertebral column is the defining characteristic of a vertebrate, in which the notochord (a flexible rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates has been replaced by a segmented series of bonesâvertebrae separated by intervertebral discs.
The lowest part of the spine is called the lumbar spine. This area usually has 5 vertebrae. However, sometimes people are born with 6 vertebrae in the lumbar region. The base of your spine (called the sacrum) is a group of specialized vertebrae that connects the spine to the pelvis. When one of the bones forms as a vertebra rather than part of the sacrum, it is called a transitional (or sixth) vertebra.