EVERYDAY SCIENCE

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: -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-3: -During adulthood (about 18–25 years) the occipital bone and the sphenoid bone fuse into a single unit.

Detailed explanation-4: -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-5: -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.