What are the changes seen in the human skeleton with age?

Question

Also what is the difference in the number of bones in adults and children?

Answer 1

as far as I know the bones get thinner, and more brittle...

Answer 2

For a general question, this answer is pretty general. The basic changes seen in the human skeleton with age include slight shrinking of bones. As well as the obvious osteoporosis. For women this happens more frequently because women stop absorbing calcium at the age of 30ish. So they need to store all the calcium for the rest of their lives in the first 30 years of their lives.

       There is no difference between the the amount of bones between children and adults. You are born with all the bones you will need in your life. The only difference between children and adults is that adults have all their bones fused. When babies are born the bones in the pieces of bone composing the head are not fused together (hence a soft spot) because it is easier for childbirth that they are not fused together.

Answer 3

In general, joints undergo wear and tear as a person ages.  Therefore, places like the sternal rib ends (ends toward the middle front of the chest), auricular surface (where the pelvis and sacrum touch), and pubic symphysis (where the two halves of the pelvis join in the front) show increasing wear as a skeleton ages.  Cranial sutures in the skull fuse over time and often can disappear in old age.  Bone also becomes porotic (osteoporosis--which can occur in both males and females) and can become more brittle.  All of the previous answer is focusing on adult bones only.

Adults have 206 bones on average.

Children have around 300 .  This is due to parts of bone that do not fuse to the rest of the bone until growth is finished, allowing for an area on which the bone can add new material and continue growing.

Answer 4

I am not an expert, just an amateur.  Many of the bones fuse with age.  An expert can tell the age of a person by the number and degree that the skull bones fuse.  The bones lose their flexibility and become regid with age.  Teeth will show wear.  Young people may not have all their teeth erupted.   Since some bones fuse, I suppose their are fewer in adults if there is any difference.

Answer 5

Maggie's answer above was excellent, but in addition to various suture closures, pubic symphasis, auricular surface, etc... Sequence of epiphyseal union and dentition(teeth) are a great way to determine age in subadults.