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Because bipedal walking requires humans to balance on a relatively unstable ball and socket joint, the placement of the vertebral column closer to the hip joint allows humans to invest less muscular effort in balancing. [7] Change in the shape of the hip may have led to the decrease in the degree of hip extension, an energy efficient adaptation.
The number of vertebrae in a region can vary but overall the number remains the same. In a human spinal column, there are normally 33 vertebrae. [3] The upper 24 pre-sacral vertebrae are articulating and separated from each other by intervertebral discs, and the lower nine are fused in adults, five in the sacrum and four in the coccyx, or tailbone.
This human ability to walk is made possible by the spinal curvature humans have that non-human apes do not. [99] Rather, walking is characterized by an "inverted pendulum" movement in which the center of gravity vaults over a stiff leg with each step. [ 100 ]
Each vertebra (pl.: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal segment and the particular species.
In human anatomy, the five vertebrae are between the rib cage and the pelvis.They are the largest segments of the vertebral column and are characterized by the absence of the foramen transversarium within the transverse process (since it is only found in the cervical region) and by the absence of facets on the sides of the body (as found only in the thoracic region).
The vertebral column, also known as the spinal column, spine or backbone, is the core part of the axial skeleton in vertebrate animals.The vertebral column is the defining and eponymous characteristic of the vertebrate endoskeleton, where the notochord (an elastic collagen-wrapped glycoprotein rod) found in all chordates has been replaced by a segmented series of mineralized irregular bones ...
The axial skeleton (80 bones) is formed by the vertebral column (32–34 bones; the number of the vertebrae differs from human to human as the lower 2 parts, sacral and coccygeal bone may vary in length), a part of the rib cage (12 pairs of ribs and the sternum), and the skull (22 bones and 7 associated bones).
Simple Walk-Cycle. Spinal locomotion results from intricate dynamic interactions between a central program in lower thoracolumbar spine and proprioceptive feedback from body in the absence of central control by brain as in complete spinal cord injury (SCI).