•Body: weight-bearing region

-Adjacent bodies separated by pad of fibrocartilage (intervertebral disc)

•Vertebral arch: attaches to body to form vertebral foramen

-Pedicles: feet of the arch

-Laminae: posterior extensions of the arch

-Stacked vertebral foramina form vertebral canal (contains spinal cord) and intervertebral foramina (passage for spinal nerves)

•Processes:

-Spinous processes project posteriorly

-Transverse processes project laterally

-Inferior articular processes of each vertebra attach to the superior articular processes of the vertebra immediately inferior to it

-Each articular process has smooth articular facet

Review: Ch 7 axial skeleton