Re: Which has a longer vertebral column, man or gorilla?

Which has a longer vertebral column, humans or gorillas?

If you mean absolute length, then the gorilla has the longer column 
merely because it is a bigger animal. If you are asking how many vertebrae 
(bones) there are in each animal, then the answer is a little more 
complicated. Here are the number of vertebrae in each region of the 
vertebral column, for humans, gorillas and chimps:


        Cervical   Thoracic     Lumbar     Sacrum       Coccyx
        (Neck)     (Chest)   (Lower Back)  (Attachment  (Tail)
                                             to hip)
Human      7         12           5           5            4
Gorilla    7         13           4           6            3
Chimp      7         13           4           6            3

As you can see, we all have 33 bones in our vertebral column. The major 
difference is that humans have shifted a bone from the thorax to the 
lumbar region, and the gorilla and chimp have shifted a bone from the tail 
to the sacrum.

Data adapted from: Schultz, AH (1961) Vertebral column and thorax. 
Primatologia 4:1-66.