The Little Emma

biomedicalephemera:

Thorax and shoulder girdle

The shoulder girdle is also known as the pectoral girdle. It consists of the clavicle and scapula, and connects the upper limbs of the body to the axial skeleton (the parts that aren’t in the chest or abdomen).

Unlike the pelvic girdle, the pectoral girdle in humans is almost completely non-weight-bearing, and fairly fragile - anyone who has landed hard on their arms (which have very strong bones), but broken their clavicle (with its weak structure), can tell you this in graphic detail.

Gray’s Anatomy. Henry Gray et al, 1911.