Bone still cartilaginous. The following steps are followed in the conversion of cartilage to bone: Bones have a variety of functions: Bones serve a variety of mechanical functions. Together the bones in the body form the skeleton. They provide a frame to keep the body supported, and an attachment point for skeletal muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints, which function together to generate and transfer forces so that individual body parts or the whole body can be manipulated in three-dimensional space (the interaction between bone and muscle is studied in biomechanics). Bones protect internal organs, such as the skull protecting the brain
Masseter muscle Masseter muscle In human anatomy, the masseter is one of the muscles of mastication. Found only in mammals, it is particularly powerful in herbivores to facilitate chewing of plant matter. The most obvious muscle of mastication is the masseter muscle, since it is the most superficial and one of the strongest. The masseter is a thick, somewhat quadrilateral muscle, consisting of two heads, superficial and deep. The fibers of the two heads are continuous at their insertion. The superficial head, the larger, arises by a thick, tendinous aponeurosis from the temporal process of zygomatic bone, and from the anterior two-thirds