GD: Bones 2 (First Timers)

An osteon is how long:

Osteons are like logs in that they have rings. The log-like osteons grow side-by-side with each other in bones.

Giant Sequoia trees may have a thousand rings or more, but the maximum amount of rings that an osteon has is about 200.

The tube (C is pointing to one layer of it) that has concentric circles (rings) which are protruding out from the rest of the tubes is:

Osteons are about as wide as a cat’s whisker.

One lamellae layer in bone (a ring) is 7-8 inches wide which is about as wide as a red blood cell.

Lamellae means “thin layer”. A tree ring has what can be called lamellae and so does a gecko’s foot. The dark “lamellae rings” of wood are the winter growth of the wood.

Mushroom “gills” (The straight lines below) are where spores are made. The are also called lamellae.

A mushroom spore has all the mushroom DNA in it to make a new mushroom fungus.

Mushroom gill lamellae (the straight lines above) increase the surface area to make leaves for the fungus.

Fish gill lamellae (secondary) stand up straight. The blood flow in them runs the opposite direction to the water flow coming in through the gills.

A tuna fish can weigh up to 1500 pounds!

What covers the gills to protect them is the skin layer called the popacitum.

A nudibranch sea slug has very unusual gills. They are located in the slime-secreting “foot” that it slides on.

Between the osteon rings there are living osteocytes which are imprisoned in bone.

There is a pipe—a cave—in the center of each osteon called the Haversian Canal. In this hollow tube there are blood vessels, lymph “pipes” and nerves.

The trabeculae bone in this picture are also called:

The pinpoint openings in the trabeculae spongy bone above lead to “caves” called canaliculi.

The gentle Clydesdale horse can weigh 4000-pounds. He has a massive number of caves in his bones!

The fluid flowing through the canaliculi “bone caves” gives the living osteocyte cell ”prisoners” food and oxygen.

Osteoblast cells get buried and go through a type of metamorphosis (a change) which makes them into osteocyte cells.

Canaliculi caves are found in the super-dense, super-hard compact teeth. They play a critical part in keeping imprisoned osteocytes alive.

There are 1 million osteon logs laying side-by-side in a cubic inch of compact bone.

An osteon is about the exact size of an upper eyelash.

About ten living osteocyte cells are buried in each lamellae ring of an osteon.

This amazing picture shows canaliculi as red snake-like tubes which interconnect with each other.

The dark spots in the picture above are living buried osteocytes.

The dark circle in the center of the osteon above is the centriole.

There are living cells called osteoblasts and osteoclasts on the outside ring of each osteon.

The life of a tiger is dependent on the molecular structure of its bones being correct. If it wasn’t, the bones of the tiger would break and the tiger would die.

In a BB-sized amount of compact bone there are more than ten thousand buried living osteocyte cells.

This is an accurate computer-generated image of a dust-sized amount of a mouse’s brain. It took a lab at Harvard 5 years to put this image together.

The colored parts of the image above are the blood pipes in the mouse’s brain.

The image below is an actual picture of compact bone taken by an electron microscope.

When bone grows wider like it does when you grow bigger, each hair-like osteon that makes up your bones grow new rings.

Each of the ring layers in the picture above is a lamellae layer.

The big dot in the center of each osteon above is the Boat Canal.

The sand-like spots around each ring are the buried-alive cells.

The larger osteons in the picture above are 200 millimeters across.

The two “canals” (caves) in bone are called the canaliculi and the Haversian Canals.

The Haversian Canals in the bones have to allow the blood to leave the bone once the blood has given up its oxygen.

Compact bone and cortical bone are different kinds of bone.

If the blood piping was plumbed incorrectly in bones, all living things with bones would die.

High-speed soccer players, gymnasts and basketball players are continually damaging their bones. Their bones have to be able to repair themselves.

If the blood didn’t flow correctly in the bones, the imprisoned osteocytes would die.

The picture below shows that the blood vessels in the Haversian Canals are inter-connected.

The maze-like bone on the far left of the picture above is what kind of bone?

As a person grows older, their bones grow longer and wider.

An older person like Michael Jordan the basketball player would have bones which would have been hugely helped through the years by cells living in them.

Imprisoned osteocytes can be a whopping 125-years old!