APPLIED RADIOLOGICAL ANATOMY

Detailed explanation-1: -They provide separation and connectivity between vertebrae and counteract forces that act to lengthen or compress the spine or affect it in a torsional or shear manner. They also sufficiently separate the vertebrae to allow spinal nerves to exit the intervertebral foramina.

Detailed explanation-2: -They adhere to both the vertebral end-plates and the bony vertebral rim. The attachment to the vertebral bodies is via ring apophyses. Intervertebral discs are wedge-like, being particularly thick anteriorly. Each intervertebral disc is composed of a nucleus pulposus and an anulus fibrosus.

Detailed explanation-3: -Therefore, the correct answer to this question, and the option which is not a primary function of the vertebral column in humans, is (C), protecting the heart and the lungs.

Detailed explanation-4: -The intervertebral discs are complex structures that consist of a thick outer ring of fibrous cartilage termed the annulus fibrosus, which surrounds a more gelatinous core known as the nucleus pulposus; the nucleus pulposus is sandwiched inferiorly and superiorly by cartilage end-plates.