the.com/vertebrae
thirty-three bones playing Jenga with your spinal cord and somehow not dropping it
means The series of small bones that stack to form your backbone, each one ringed to shelter and protect the spinal cord running through them.
from From Latin 'vertebra,' meaning a joint or something that turns, built on the verb 'vertere' — to turn — the same root that gives us 'vertigo,' 'reverse,' and 'versus.' The Romans named the bone for what it does: it lets the spine bend and pivot, a column of little turning-points. 'Vertebrae' is simply the Latin plural, carried into English unchanged.
- count
- humans and giraffes both have seven neck vertebrae
- fusion
- five fuse into the sacrum as you grow up
- shock work
- discs between them lose water and shrink you daily
- naming
- each one numbered like C1 through L5
- atlas
- top vertebra named for the sky-holding titan
atlas — c1 vertebra in humans that supports the skull and allows head rotation
axis — c2 vertebra with the dens process that enables neck turning in mammals
lumbar vertebrae — l1-l5 in the lower back, bearing 80% of upper body weight in humans