Can You Name the 35 Smallest Bones in the Human Body in Five Minutes?

Your hyoid bone is located in the front of your throat and helps you move your tongue and swallow. If you get punched in the front of the throat, you're at risk of breaking your hyoid bone, which can be extremely painful!

The sphenoid bone contains a special bony landmark called the sella turcica, which plays the important role of cradling your pituitary gland. Your pituitary gland releases hormones that manage almost every aspect of your body's health.

Some birds store the iron ore called magnetite in their ethmoid bone which allows them to feel the direction of the world's magnetic fields. Wouldn't it be cool if humans also had that kind of sixth sense?

Your lacrimal bone is among the smallest in your body. There's one located near each of your inner eyes that contain the landmarks that form your tear ducts. If you've ever been knocked here, you probably already know how much it hurts to get hit in this area.

Your patella is known as a sesamoid bone, which means that it functions to redirect forces in a pulley system. It allows your quadriceps muscle in the front of your thigh to efficiently pull on your tibia to extend your leg.

Do you think you have a fabella bone? Less than half of humans still have this bone that's disappeared as we evolved. It's thought that its primary function is to redirect the forces from your calf muscle.

The pisiform is another sesamoid bone that helps that muscle in your forearm move your hand. When you're developing as a baby, it's the last bone in your wrist that calcifies and goes on to form the border of your carpal tunnel.

You have a total of 56 phalanges in your body, making it the most common bone in your skeleton. Each of your hands and feet contains 14 phalanges. Each finger and toe has three, except for your thumb and big toe, which only have two.

If you point your foot down and feel the first bone in the front of your ankle, that's your talus bone. It's the second largest tarsal bone in your foot behind the calcaneus, otherwise known as your heel bone.

There's no 'foot bone' per se, but a collection of bones that are known as the tarsal bones. This allows for an even distribution of forces when you walk, run or stand. If there were only one foot bone, it would have to be very strong to withstand the ground-reaction forces.

Your axis bone works alongside your C1 vertebra to allow your head to easily turn. It's a little different than your other cervical vertebrae because it has a landmark called the dens, which protrudes to allow the C1 vertebra to rotate on top of it.

Your atlas is your uppermost vertebra that works along with your axis to allow your head to turn. It's named after the Greek Titan Atlas who holds the world. Unlike other vertebrae, it's ring-shaped to allow for more rotation.

We might not have tails anymore, but that doesn't mean we don't still have the vestigial bone for one. The coccyx is considered one bone, but it's made up of several fused vertebrae just below your sacrum.

Your skull may look like one bone, but it's actually made up of a collection of bones fused together. If you looked at your head under an X-ray, you'd see sutures where the bones fused when you were a child.

If you feel the prominence of your cheek, you're feeling the bony landmark known as the zygomatic arch. When somebody has what's referred to as "high cheekbones," they have a prominent zygomatic arch. So the next time you see somebody attractive, you can tell them you like their zygomatic bones!

The stapes is located inside your ear and helps conduct sound vibrations. It's shaped like a stirrup, which is the Latin origin of the word. It's thought to have been discovered way back in 1546 in Italy.

The stapes may be the smallest bone in your body, but the incus isn't much bigger. Like the stapes, its primary function is to deliver sound ways from the malleus to the stapes. It gets its name from its anvil-like shape.

If you rub your tongue against the roof of your mouth, you'll feel your palatine bone. Without this bone, eating would be much more difficult. And besides, there would be nothing to stop your food from getting into your brain.

The inferior nasal concha is a small, shelf-like bone inside your nose that helps form your breathing passages. If you study a human skull, you can recognize this bone easily, since it resembles a curled-up scroll inside of the nose.

The vomer bone is located directly in the middle of your nasal passage. It divides your nose into left and right. Even though the bone is in the middle of your nose, in many people, it's bent slightly so that the two nasal passages aren't even.

The malleus is another bone found in your inner ear that conducts sound. Like the other two middle ear bones, the incus and stapes, it's named for its shape. The malleus is shaped like a hammer, so can you guess what "malleus" is Latin for?

Many golfers and hockey players break their hamate bone when swinging or taking a shot. Because it's located on the lateral part of the wrist, it has to absorb a lot of downward force. Some athletes may even have the bone removed in extreme cases.

Your capitate bone is located directly below the phalanges and metacarpal bones that make up your middle finger. It's the largest of the carpal bones in your wrist. Your carpal bone helps your hand absorb the force generated by the movement of your middle finger.

The trapezoid bone is the smallest bone in your wrist. It may be hard to find through palpation alone, but it's located below your index finger. It's uncommon to break your trapezoid due to being fairly well protected by the bones around it.

Your trapezium and trapezoid bones may sound similar, but they are two separate bones. Your trapezium is located directly under your thumb and makes up the border of your carpal tunnel. It's common to develop arthritis between this bone and your thumb with age.

Have you ever broken your collarbone? It's one of the most common bones for people to break due to being located in a fairly vulnerable position. If you fall and land on your hands, the force from impact can cause it to snap.

The layman's term for calcaneus is the heel bone. It provides you with a stable surface to walk on, and the bone is shaped like a brick in a bridge to be able to absorb a large amount of force. It's also the insertion site of the largest tendon in your body, your Achilles.

Your cuboid bone is located on the lateral part of your foot and borders your calcaneus and metatarsal bones. It provides your foot with structure and helps create your foot's natural arch.

If you've ever seen a scene in a movie where a character karate chops a piece of wood and breaks their hand, this might be the bone that they broke. The triquetral bone is located on the medial side of your hand near your ulna bone.

Your three cuneiform bones give your foot the structure of your arch. They're known as your medial, intermediate and lateral cuneiform, respectively from the inside of your foot to the outside.

You have five metacarpal bones in each hand that make up the bulk of your palms. If you've ever broken your hand punching a wall, you likely broke one of your metacarpal bones. A fracture in one of your metacarpal bones is commonly referred to as a boxer's fracture.

Your metacarpal bones are the metacarpals of your feet. They bridge the gap between your tarsal bones and phalanges. If drop something heavy on your foot, there's a high risk that you'll break one of these bones due to their slender shape.

Your maxilla is formed from two bones fused together in the middle. It makes up the area above your upper lip and also forms part of your sinuses. The most common way to break this bone is during car accidents or getting knocked in the face.

Your lunate bone gets its name from its crescent-moon shape. It's located at the base of your wrist and borders your ulna bone. It's easy to find by palpating the back of your wrist just above where your ulna and carpal bones meet.

Your scaphoid bone is the second largest of your carpal bones. You can easily feel it by spreading your fingers and palpating the area just above the head of your radius. Like the other carpal bones, it helps gives your wrist structure.