Bone vessels and cartilage. In the human body at birth, there are over 270 bones, but many of these fuse together during development, leaving a total of 206 separate bones in the adult, not counting numerous small sesamoid bones. The largest bone in the body is the femur or thigh-bone, and the smallest is the stapes in the middle ear. The Greek word for bone is ὀστέον ("osteon"), hence the many terms that use it as a prefix – such as osteopathy. Bone is not uniformly solid, but consists of a flexible matrix (about 30%) and bound minerals (about 70%) which
Hyoid bone the mouth and the tongue above, the larynx below, and the epiglottis and pharynx behind. Its name is derived . The hyoid bone is classed as an irregular bone and consists of a central part called the body, and two pairs of horns, the greater and lesser horns. The body of the hyoid bone is the central part of the hyoid bone. The greater and lesser horns () are two sections of bone that project from each side of the hyoid. The greater horns project backward from the outer borders of the body; they are flattened from above downward and