UCSB Science Line
Sponge Spicules Nerve Cells Galaxy Abalone Shell Nickel Succinate X-ray Lens Lupine
UCSB Science Line
Home
How it Works
Ask a Question
Search Topics
Webcasts
Our Scientists
Science Links
Contact Information
What animals have the most bones in its body?
Question Date: 2011-11-18
Answer 1:

That depends on what you mean by a bone - snakes have very long tails and each tail has a set of ribs, so I suspect that among vertebrates that actually have bones that it would be snakes or caecilians (snake-like salamanders) or something similar. However, for the largest number of hard parts, the title has to go to an echinoderm of some sort (starfish, sea urchins, etc.), whose bodies are composed of thousands of little calcium carbonate plates. One extinct class of echinoderms, the blastoids, had MILLIONS of these plates!



Click Here to return to the search form.

University of California, Santa Barbara Materials Research Laboratory National Science Foundation
This program is co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation and UCSB School-University Partnerships
Copyright © 2020 The Regents of the University of California,
All Rights Reserved.
UCSB Terms of Use