Life Processes in Plants and

Animals
Topic 2: Support Systems in
Animals

Human Skeleton System

Tissues in the Skeletal
System
Types of skeleton

Human skeleton

Structure of Long Bone

Bone tissue

Cartilage

Joints

Structure of skeletal muscles

 Bone:
- Two types of bone:
Compact bone consist of hard, dense bone
tissue. It forms the surface of bones and the
shafts of long bones. Compact bones provide
strength and support to the skeleton.

- Spongy bone consists of softer lighter bone

tissue. It forms the heads of long bones and
contains red marrow which produces red blood
cells corpuscles and white blood cells. Spongy
bones exert resistance against forces that act on
bones
 chondrocyte lacuna
 Cartilage

 Forms part of
endoskeleton of
humans
 Semi-transparent
tough elastic chondrin
connective tissue Diagram of Hyaline cartilage
 Tendons

 Inelastic,
white,
fibrous connective
tissue that
attaches muscle to
bone

Tendon
 Ligaments

 Tough, yellow elastic

connective tissue that
attach bone to bone
 Ligaments stretch
only enough to
control the movement
in a joint
 They hold bones in a
joint in position and
in so doing stabilise Ligament
the joint
 Long bones consist of a
long cilindrical middle
part, the shaft head
(diaphysis), and a thicker
part , the head head
(epiphysis) on each end
 The long bone is
surrounded by a tough
membrane called the
periosteum
 The shaft consists of shaft
compact bone that
surrounds a longitudinal
cavity, the marrow Diagram showing head and
cavity shaft of long bone
 The marrow cavity is
lined with a thin, soft
membrane, the
endosteum
 Yelow marrow,
containing many fat
cells and white blood
cells occurs in the
marrow cavity

T/s of the long bone

 The heads of the long
bones consists of spongy
bone covered with
hyaline cartilage
 This forms the articular
surfaces for contact
with the other bones
 Red marrow, that
produces red blood
corpuscles and white
blood cells occur in the
heads of the bone
 A joint is place where 2 or more
bones meet.
 They are:
1. Immovable joints. - do not
allow any movement,
Example the sutures of the
skull.
2. Semi- movable joints. – allows
for slight movement, example
the joint between the
vertebrae.
3. Freely movable (synovial
joints) allows for free
movement, example the ball
and socket joints.
STRUCTURE OF SYNOVIAL
JOINT:
 The ends of two bones
forming the joint are
covered with a layer of
of hyaline cartilage.
 The whole joint is
enclosed by a sac made
up of a ligament known
as a joint capsule.
 The capsule is lined with
the synovial membrane.
 The function of the
synovial membrane is to
secrete the synovial fluid
which prevents friction in
the joint.
 Some synovial joints also
contain ligaments that
attach the two bones of
the joint to each other
 Classifiedaccording to type of movement
they allow:
 Ball-and-socket
joint: the head of
one bone fits in
the socket of
another. This joint
allows movement
in any direction
 e.g. Shoulder and
hip joint
 Hinge joint:
 Permits movement
in only one plane
 e.g. Elbow and
knee joint
 Pivot joint:
 One bone rotates
around another
 e.g. The atlas that
rotates around a
bony projection of
the axis
 Gliding joint:
 The flat articular
surface of one
bone slides over
that of another
bone.
 e.g. bones of the
wrist and ankle
joint
1. How are joints classified?
2. Describe the build and functions of a typical
synovial joint.
3. Name the different synovial joints that
we’ve learnt about and give an example of
each in the human body.
Characteristics:
 Attached to the skeleton by inelastic tendons
 Have dark and light bands (striated muscles)
 Under voluntary control
STRUCTURE OF STRIATED
MUSCLES:
 Each muscle is built up
by a large number of
muscle fibres that are
bound together in
bundles by connective
tissue known as the
perimysium.
 These separate bundles
are bound together
again by connective Diagram showing the striated
tissue known as the muscle
epimysium.
STRUCTURE OF MUSCLE FIBRE:
 The muscle fibre is surrounded the sarcolemma.
 Within the sarcolemma is a ground substance
called the sarcoplasm.
 The content of the muscle fibre consists of
cytoplasm, a number of oval nuclei and
mitochondria
 Each muscle fibre consists of thousands of
myofibrils.
Structure of Skeletal Muscle
STRUCTURE OF
MYOFIBRILS:
 Each myofibril is made
up of filaments called
myosin and actin.
 The myosin are the thick
filaments, while the
actin are the thin
filaments.
 Myosin filaments are
thicker and appear
darker, while actin
filaments are thinner and
appear lighter
 The regions consisting only of actin filaments
appear as light bands while the regions
containing actin and myosin appear as dark
bands
 These alternating dark and light bands give the
skeletal muscle its characteristic striated
appearance
 Light bands are dissected by a line known as
the Z-line.
 The region between two Z-lines is known as a
sarcomere
 Nerve fibres penetrate the sarcolemma of each
muscle fibre and transmit the nerve impulses
that causes contraction or relaxation
 During contraction the thin actin filaments slide
past the thicker myosin filaments so that there is
more overlap of actin and myosin
 The Z-lines move closer to each other
(shortening the sarcomere)
 The shortened sarcomere leads to shortening
of the myofibrils the muscle fibres and
eventually the whole muscle
 The skeletal muscles are called antagonistic
muscle. These muscles work in pairs and in
opposition to each other.
 This means that when one muscle in the pair
contract the other relaxes.
 This brings about movement at the joints.
For example:
 The triceps and biceps are examples of
antagonistic muscles.
 The bicep is found in the front of the arm and the
tricep is found at the back of the arm.
 When the bicep contracts, the tricep relaxes the
arm is raised.
 When the bicep relaxes and the tricep contracts
the arm is lowered.
 Hydrostatic skeleton: is one in which muscles act
against fluid to bring about movement.
 Exoskeleton: is a hard outer skeleton.
 Calcareous: made up of calcium carbonate
 Chitin: substance that makes up the exoskeleton in
arthropods.
 Endoskeleton: is an internal skeleton.
 Cartilage: is a semi-transparent, tough, flexible tissue.
 Tendons: attach muscle to bone.
 Ligaments: join bone to bone at the joints.
 Haemopoiesis: making blood cells from stem cells
 Cardiac muscle: striated, involuntary muscle
 Smooth muscle: unstriated, involuntary muscle
 Striated muscle: striped, voluntary muscle.
 Voluntary muscle: under the control of the will.
 Involuntary muscle: cannot be controlled by the
will.
 Skeletal muscle: striated, voluntary muscle
 Antagonistic muscles: a pair of muscles that work
in opposition to each other.
 Rickets
 Deficiency disease that causes bone to
become soft, bend and weaken the skeleton.
 This weakening leads to deformities and a
high incidence of bone fractures.
 Shortage of vitamin D
 Osteoporosis
A decrease in bone density
 Bones become porous and less dense due to
shortage of calcium
 Leads to weakened bones that increase risks
of fractures
 More common in older woman
 Curved back and decrease in height are
visble signs
 Arthritis
 disease that causes severe pain in joints
 “inflamation in the joints”

 Osteoarthritis
 Cartilage that disintegrates over time
 Bones in joints then grind against each other
and cause inflamation
 Occurs in hips, knees, feet, fingers and spine
 Rheumatoid arthritis
 Synovial membrane of joints thicken and
produce too much synovial fluid which causes
inflammation
 This auto immune disease is when the body’s
immune system attacks its own tissues
 Usually causes deformation of the joints and
commonly affects the small finger joints,
wrists, knees and toes
Muscles that work in opposition to each other are…

A. Antagonistic
B. Cardiac
C. Smooth
D. A and C
Involuntary muscles that are striped are …

A. Antagonistic
B. Cardiac
C. Smooth
D. A and C
The voluntary muscle is …

A. Antagonistic
B. Cardiac
C. Smooth
D. A and C
The involuntary muscle is…

A. Antagonistic
B. Cardiac
C. Smooth
D. A and C
The filaments in the myofibrils are called…

A. Bicep and tricep

B. Actin and myosin
C. Perimysium and epimysium
D. Striations
The outer covering of the muscle fibre is called the…

A. Bicep
B. Actin and myosin
C. Epimysium
D. Striations
The connective tissue that holds together a bundle of
muscle fibres is called the…

A. Epimysium
B. Actin
C. Perimysium
D. Striations
The outer membrane of muscle fibre is called…

A. Sarcoplasm
B. Sarcolemma
C. Perimysium and epimysium
D. Striations
The ground substance of the muscle fibre is called the…

A. Sarcoplasm
B. Sarcolemma
C. Perimysium and epimysium
D. Striations
The light and dark bands on the muscle fibre is known as…

A. Sarcoplasm
B. Sarcolemma
C. Perimysium and epimysium
D. Striations
Fixed or immovable joints are…

A. The sutures in the skull

B. The pivot joint
C. The hinge joint
D. The ball and socket joint
An example of a freely movable joint is the…

A. Sutures in the skull

B. Synovial joint
C. Both A and B
D. None of the above
The synovial joint is enclosed by a tissue called the…

A. Capsular ligament
B. Synovial membrane
C. Hyaline cartilage
D. Ligament
The tissue that secretes the synovial fluid in a synovial
joint is called the…

A. Capsular ligament
B. Synovial membrane
C. Hyaline cartilage
D. Ligament
The cartilage that covers the bones at the joint is called…

A. Capsular ligament
B. Synovial membrane
C. Hyaline cartilage
D. Ligament
The tissue that holds the bones together at a joint is
called the…

A. Tendon
B. Synovial membrane
C. Hyaline cartilage
D. Ligament
The tissue that joins muscle to bone is called…

A. Tendon
B. Synovial membrane
C. Hyaline cartilage
D. Ligament
The cartilage that a large number of bundles of white
non-elastic fibres is called…

A. Hyaline
B. White fibro cartilage
C. Yellow elastic cartilage
D. Both A and B
The cartilage cells are called…

A. Chondrocytes
B. Chondrin
C. Lacuna
D. Fibres
The ground substance of cartilage is called…

A. Chondrocytes
B. Chondrin
C. Lacuna
D. Fibres