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Thompson: Hi! This is Thompson at LFX News at 9. Today, we'll be featuring a special segment on the skeletal system. Here's Ben who'll tell you a little more about that.

Ben: Thanks Thompson. To start off, the skeletal system has five main functions. It protects our inner organs, stores minerals (mainly calcium), supports and provides shape for the body, allows for movement, and produces red blood cells. Now we'll go to Dominique in the femur.

Dominique: Thank you Ben. I am here in the femur, the bone in the upper leg. The femur is the longest bone in the body. It is the strongest bone in the body and the average femur can take 560 pounds of weight. As you can see, behind me is red bone marrow. There is one other kind of marrow, called yellow marrow. Yellow marrow stores fat. Red marrow, found (except in children, where most bones contain red bone marrow) only in the ends of the femurs, the skull, hip bones and sternum, produces blood cells. Now we'll go back to Thompson.

Thompson: Thanks for the marrow description Dominique. Quick fact: there are 206 bones in a fully grown adult, but in an average baby, there are over 300. This is because as a baby grows, some of its bones fuse together. Anyway, Ben is in the elbow to tell us about joints.

Ben: Thanks Thompson. There are two kinds of joints: movable and immovable joints. Immovable joints are joints that either don't let the bones move or only let them move a little. Movable joints, which is what the majority of joints in your body are, let your bones move in different ways. The bones in movable joints are held together by ligaments. This particular joint is a hinge joint, just like your knees. Hinge joints let you bend and straighten, as you can do with your elbow.

Thompson: Thanks Ben. Dominique is in the skull ready to tell us a little about about immovable joints.

Dominique: Yes Thompson, I'm in the cranium, which protects the brain. There are joints attached to the cranium, but these joints don't let it move. They are called immovable joints. These immovable joints are important because they allow the brain to expand. It needs to expand because as you grow from a child to an adult, your brain expands a lot and needs a lot of room. If it weren't to have enough room, your brain would be damaged. Now here's Ben, who will show us some of the different bones in a skeleton.

Ben: Thanks Dominique. To start, these are the ribs, and this is the sternum. They protect the lungs and heart. This is the cranium, which protects the brain. The bone here, in the upper arm, is the humerus. The bone in the upper leg is the femur. These bones, in your wrist, are your carpals. These are your metacarpals. Here, in your fingers and toes, are your phalanges. In your ankle, these are your tarsals, and these are your metatarsals. Alright, now back to Dominique to show us the structure of the bone.

Dominique: (Show bone diagram in background) Here you can see that on the very inside of the bone is the bone marrow cavity, filled with the actual bone marrow. Around that is the very spongy bone, also known as cacellous bone. This part of the bone is very porous and gives the bone strength. Surrounding that is the compact bone. Covering the entire bone is a layer of periosteum. This diagram shows exactly how the bone is put together. Thompson, back to you.

Thompson: Actually, that's all the time we have. See you next time at LFX News at 9.