What I always find fascinating: babies are born with about 270 small bones. During growth, many of these bones fuse together, until you eventually end up with those 206. Quite a difference, right?

Take the skull, for instance. In newborn babies, there are still soft spots between the bones - the fontanelles. That’s not without reason: it allows the baby’s head to pass through the birth canal without anything breaking. Clever system. Those plates then slowly close up until you have a solid skull.

Where are all these bones actually located?

Your skeleton consists of two major groups. The axial skeleton - that’s the central axis of your body - contains 80 bones. Think of your skull (22 pieces), spine (26 vertebrae including sacrum and coccyx), your ribs (24 ribs plus sternum), and the hyoid bone.

The rest, 126 bones, are in your arms, legs, shoulders, and pelvis. That’s called the appendicular skeleton.

Here’s the strange part: more than half of all your bones are in your hands and feet. Each hand has 27 small bones, each foot has 26. Do the math - that’s 106 bones together. More than half your total! That’s why we can make such intricate movements with our hands.

From tiny to massive

The smallest bone in your body is the stapes in your middle ear. It’s only 2 to 3 millimeters in size. Incredibly small really, yet crucial for your hearing. On the other hand, you have the femur - the largest bone - which in an adult man can easily be 50 centimeters long. That’s a quarter of your total height.

Why this question works so well in a quiz

This is one of those questions where everyone thinks: “Oh, I know that… approximately.” You hear teams whispering: “Was it 200-something? Or 250?” Nobody knows for sure, but it’s just within the range of what sounds logical. That creates tension. And honestly, often discussion at the table too.

Leonardo da Vinci, by the way, made incredibly detailed anatomical drawings of the human skeleton. That was in the 15th century, and they’re still surprisingly accurate. He wrote somewhere: “The human body is the most perfect machine ever designed.” Pretty poetic for an anatomist.

The exact number actually varies

Although 206 is the official answer, it’s not entirely accurate for everyone. About 1 in 20 people have an extra pair of ribs - 13 instead of 12 pairs. Then you end up with 208. Some people have extra small bones in their hands or feet, or certain bones that haven’t fully developed.

Then you also have sesamoid bones - small round bones that can be embedded in tendons. The kneecap is an example of that, but some people have more.

Your bones aren’t static, by the way. They constantly renew themselves. Approximately every 7 to 10 years you have a completely new skeleton - old bone tissue is replaced by new. That process does slow down as you get older, which explains why elderly people get fractures more easily.

What do all these bones actually do?

Well, the obvious things of course: they give structure to your body and protect your organs. Your brain, heart, and lungs would be pretty vulnerable without protection.

But there’s much more happening. Blood cells are produced in your bone marrow. Your bones store minerals, especially calcium and phosphorus. And they work as levers so your muscles can move you.

Bones are also ridiculously strong. A cubic centimeter of bone tissue can support about 10,000 kilos before it breaks. That’s stronger than concrete! But they’re not brittle - they actually have a certain flexibility that makes them resilient.

For a pub quiz, this is simply a classic question. You test general knowledge, a bit of biological understanding, and the answer is clearly verifiable. It’s not so simple that everyone knows it immediately, but also not so difficult that nobody comes close. Teams that think a bit and reason logically have a fair chance. And that’s exactly what you want.