Patella Patella The patella, also known as the kneecap, is a thick, circular-triangular bone which articulates with the femur (thigh bone) and covers and protects the anterior articular surface of the knee joint. The patella is found in many tetrapods, such as mice, cats and birds, but not in whales, or most reptiles. In humans, the patella is the largest sesamoid bone in the body. Babies are born with a patella of soft cartilage which begins to ossify into bone at about three years of age. The patella is a sesamoid bone roughly triangular in shape, with the apex of the
Composition of the human body g in men, ~2.3 g in women Of the 94 naturally occurring chemical elements, 60 are listed in the table above. Of the remaining 34, it is not known how many occur in the human body. Most of the elements needed for life are relatively common in the Earth's crust. Aluminium, the third most common element in the Earth's crust (after oxygen and silicon), serves no function in living cells, but is harmful in large amounts. Transferrins can bind aluminium. The composition of the human body is expressed in terms of chemicals: The composition of the human body can be