Total skeletal mass12 kg
4 tenthsGolden retrievers
24,000Hummingbird eggs
Average adult dry skeleton; 206 bones total
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Full Human Skeleton
206 bones holding up your life choices/The Human Body
The adult human skeleton comprises 206 bones (down from about 270 at birth, as many fuse during development). It weighs roughly 12 kg in a typical adult, which is about 15% of total body weight. The skeleton serves as structural framework, mineral storage, and blood cell factory, and your bone marrow produces about 200 billion red blood cells every day.
Measurements
Longest bone (femur)4.8 tenths m
68.6 millionChip transistor gates
6.3 hundredthsTape measure lengths
About 48 cm
Smallest bone (stapes)3 thousandths m
545 millionthsGiraffes
1.7 hundredthsCarrot lengths
About 3 mm, in the middle ear
Spine length7.1 tenths m
3.9 hundredthsRailroad car lengths
28,400Pollen grain widths
2 thousandthsCruise ship lengths
33 vertebrae stacked; average about 71 cm
Skull mass1 kg
2.2 tenthsAdult house cats
490 billionthsSpace Shuttle launches
Cranium plus mandible, about 1 kg
Total bone surface area1.5 m²
2.08Bath towels
4.1 hundredthsTwo-car garages
Estimated total surface area of all 206 bones