carpal bones

The wrist consists of eight small bones, called the carpal bones. They can be seen in the photo. The carpal bones have the following names:

An interesting side note: in some other animals, like horses, these same carpal bones form the knee of the foreleg.

• the capitate bone
• the hamate bone
• the triangular bone
• the pisiform bone
• the lunate bone
• the scaphoid bone
• the multangular bone
• the lesser multangular bone

The carpal bones form a flexible wrist, while protecting the blood vessels and nerves in your wrist at the same time.