ANATOMY

Detailed explanation-1: -The baby skeleton has more bones and cartilages. During development many of these cartilages become bones by the process called ossification and some bones fuse to form a bigger bone reducing the number of bones to 206.

Detailed explanation-2: -This is because a baby’s bones aren’t fully formed and are joined together with a tough but flexible tissue called cartilage, which helps protect the baby, and the mother, during birth. As a child grows, the cartilage hardens and turns to bone, fusing the parts together-a process known as ossification.

Detailed explanation-3: -They are born unfused to allow for continued growth, and they also serve to reduce injury when a baby falls down. For example, babies are born with kneecaps that are mostly just cartilage pieces and do not become one fully formed bone until the age of three.

Detailed explanation-4: -A baby’s body has about 300 bones at birth. These eventually fuse (grow together) to form the 206 bones that adults have. Some of a baby’s bones are made entirely of a special material called cartilage (say: KAR-tel-ij). Other bones in a baby are partly made of cartilage.

Detailed explanation-5: -During adulthood (about 18–25 years) the occipital bone and the sphenoid bone fuse into a single unit.