Human Body - Bones

"Humans are born with 350 bones in their body, however when a person reaches adulthood they only have 206 bones. This occurs because many of them join together to make a single bone."

A typical adult human skeleton commonly consists of 206, 208 or more bones depending on the method used in counting normal variations. The count of 208 considers thesternum to be made up of three bones instead of one; manubrium, body of sternum (also known as the gladiolus) and xiphoid process. Anatomical variation may also result in the formation of more or fewer bones. More common variations include cervical ribs or an additional lumbar vertebra. Babies are born with around 300 to 350 bones,[citation needed]many of which fuse together during growth.