| MadSci Network: General Biology |
How many bones are in a rat’s body? All mammals (humans, rats, dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc.) follow the same basic body plan. That means that they all have pretty much the same types and numbers of bones – at least to begin with. When we are born, we actually have more bones in our body then we do as an adult. Part of what allows the body to grow bigger is the fact that parts of a single bone will be separated by growth plates, which means that it is really two or three bones when you are young. Some mammals also fuse some of their bones together, or lose them entirely, during growth. That would account for some of the number differences. Still, whether you are a human or a rat, you will still have 205 different named bones in your body. Depending upon what type of rat you are interested in, there may be greater or fewer tail bones (called caudal vertebrae in a rat and coccygeal vertebrae in a human), and a rat always has more tail bones than a person does. Here are some web pages with pictures of rat skeletons: http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/rat.gif http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/science/biological_sciences/lab13/images/ ratskell.jpeg
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