Now, normally, losing bones as you get older doesn’t sound like a great thing. In all fairness, though, babies don’t lose bones so much as some bones fuse together. Babies are born with 270 bones, but many of these bones will eventually combine until the magic number of 206 is achieved. For instance, the soft spot in Baby‘s head is really just a gap between bones that will later fuse together.
These gaps and unfused bones mean that even though the number of bones babies have is higher than adults, more of their bodies are made up of soft cartilage. So when you see Baby squirming around on the ground like a fish, remember that they have more in common with one than you might think!
Sources
- “40 Truly Amazing Facts About Babies.” Online Nurse Practitioner Schools. Online Nurse Practitioner Schools. Web.
- “Bone Basics and Bone Anatomy.” Ask a Biologist. Arizona State University School of Life Sciences. Web.
