Skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that provides support, shape and protection to the soft tissues and delicate organs of animals. Solid skeletons can be internal, called an endoskeleton, or external called an exoskeleton. Rigid skeletons are formed from materials including chitin, calcium compounds such as calcium carbonate and silicate. The cytoskeleton is used to stabilize and preserve the form of the cells.

About Skeleton in brief

Summary SkeletonThe skeleton is the body part that provides support, shape and protection to the soft tissues and delicate organs of animals. There are two major types of skeletons: solid and fluid. Solid skeletons can be internal, called an endoskeleton, or external called an exoskeleton. Rigid skeletons are formed from materials including chitin, calcium compounds such as calcium carbonate and silicate. The cytoskeleton is used to stabilize and preserve the form of the cells. It is a dynamic structure that maintains cell shape, protects the cell, enables cellular motion and plays important roles in both intracellular transport and cellular division. A hydrostatic skeleton is a semi-rigid, soft tissue structure filled with liquid under pressure, surrounded by muscles. Longitudinal muscles around body sectors allow alternate lengthening and contractions along their lengths. A common example of this is the earthkeletons of echinoderms such as jellyfish and earthworms. The skeleton consists of spicules consisting of the protein spongin, the mineral silica, and the surrounding muscles to change the organism’s shape and produce movement. The sponges include 90% of all species of demosponges, which include 90 per cent of earthworms, earthworms and jellyfish. The term comes from Greek σκελετός  ‘dried up’, which means ‘to dry up’ or ‘to be dried up’ The skeleton is also termed the coelomic cavity, which is a body cavity filled with fluid and the pressure from this fluid acts together with this fluid to change an organism’s body shape.

The endos skeleton is composed of mineralized tissue and is typical of vertebrates. The hydroskeleton is a flexible skeleton supported by fluid pressure, and is present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including bacteria, and archaea. It can be further classified as pliant or rigid. Fluid skeletons are always internal, and are found in many invertebrates; they enclose and protect thesoft tissues and organs of the body. An external skeleton can be quite heavy in relation to the overall mass of an animal, so on land, organisms that have anExoskeleton are mostly relatively small. The southern giant clam, a species of extremely large saltwater clam in the Pacific Ocean, has a shell that is massive in both size and weight. The shell of mollusks also performs all of the same functions, except that in most cases it does not contain sense organs. Such a skeleton type used by animals that live in water are more for protection or for fast-moving animals that require additional support of musculature needed for swimming through water.