• Technus@lemmy.zip
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    11 months ago

    What about people who have had limbs amputated?

    Do teeth count as part of the skeleton? If you’ve lost teeth do you only have 99% of a skeleton left?

    According to this, bones don’t start forming until the sixth or seventh week of gestation, so does the fetus technically not have a skeleton before then?

    So many questions

    • jwhardcastle@dmv.social
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      11 months ago

      Everyone else is failing to count the number of babies (140 million per year) nearly all of whom have 100% complete skeletons and set that against the number of amputations of perhaps a few percentage points across a much smaller number of people annually (“more than 1 million annually”).

    • Instigate@aussie.zone
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      11 months ago

      I’d argue teeth aren’t skeleton because they’re not made of the same substance as bone - the outside is enamel and dentin whereas bones are collagen, protein and minerals (mostly calcium). Kinda like how hair and nails don’t count because they’re made of keratin.

    • Tavarin@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      so does the fetus technically not have a skeleton before then?

      The cartilaginous pre-bones would still be a skeleton. Sharks have skeletons, but don’t have any bones for example.

    • gnate@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Will no one bring down the average? I guess they won’t be stepping up …