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99 free Human Anatomy trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
10 free Human Anatomy trivia questions with answers. Human Anatomy trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Anatomy trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01How many bones are typically found in the adult human body?
206
The adult skeleton has 206 bones, from the femur, the longest, down to the stapes in the middle ear, the smallest.
Q 02What is the folded outer layer of grey matter covering the brain called?
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is only a few millimetres thick, so its folds, the ridges and grooves, are what let so much of it fit inside the skull; its neocortex is built from six layers.
Q 03Weighing around 16% of your body mass, which organ is the largest in the human body?
Skin
Skin outweighs every other organ at roughly 16% of body mass, and you shed and replace its outer layer about once a month.
Q 04What is the primary function of the larynx?
Producing sound
Producing sound is why it is called the voice box; it also closes over the windpipe when you swallow so food goes down the right way.
Q 05Which blood type is the 'universal recipient' for red cell transfusions?
AB+
AB+ red cells already carry the A, B and Rh antigens, so there is nothing new in a donor's red cells for the immune system to attack; O negative is the universal donor.
Q 06Which gland is often referred to as the 'master gland' of the endocrine system?
Pituitary gland
The pituitary gland is called the 'master gland' because it produces hormones that regulate many vital body functions and controls the functions of many other endocrine glands.
Q 07What is the collective name for the dura, arachnoid and pia mater?
Meninges
The meninges are what meningitis inflames, which is why a stiff neck is a warning sign; the toughest layer, the dura mater, means 'hard mother' in Latin.
Q 08Which artery carries oxygen-poor blood away from the heart?
Pulmonary artery
The pulmonary artery runs from the right ventricle to the lungs for a refill; the real rule is that arteries carry blood away from the heart, not that they carry oxygen.
Q 09What is the largest gland in the human body?
Liver
The liver is both the largest gland and the heaviest internal organ, and the only one that can regrow from as little as a quarter of its mass.
Q 10How many chambers does the human heart possess?
Four
The human heart is a double pump with four chambers: two upper atria (right and left) and two lower ventricles (right and left).
Q 11Roughly how many bones does a human have at birth, before many fuse together?
Around 270
A newborn has around 270 bones; the count falls to about 206 in adulthood as bones such as those of the skull and sacrum fuse.
Q 12The skull, spine and rib cage together make up which part of the skeleton?
The axial division
The axial division, the skeleton's central column of skull, vertebrae, ribs and sternum, has 80 bones; the limbs and girdles form the appendicular division.
Q 13How many bones make up the appendicular skeleton (limbs plus the shoulder and pelvic girdles)?
126
The appendicular skeleton has 126 bones: 64 in the shoulders and arms and 62 in the pelvis and legs, which with the 80 axial bones makes the adult total of 206.
Q 21Which is the shortest of the three regions of the small intestine?
The duodenum
The duodenum is only about 25 cm long, against roughly 2.5 m for the jejunum and 3 m for the ileum.
Q 22The intestinal projections called villi take their name from the Latin for what?
Shaggy hair
Villus is Latin for 'shaggy hair' or a tuft of hair; the lining looks like velvet, a word that shares the same root.
Q 23Roughly how many neurons does the human brain contain?
More than 86 billion
There are roughly as many non-neuronal cells again.
Q 14In adults, where does blood cell production (haematopoiesis) mainly take place?
In the pelvis, cranium, vertebrae and sternum
In adults red marrow is largely confined to the pelvis, cranium, vertebrae and sternum, plus the upper ends of the femur and humerus; in children the long-bone marrow is also active.
Q 15Vesalius corrected Galen's claim that which body part was made of two bones rather than one?
The lower jaw
Galen, who dissected animals, described a two-part lower jaw; Vesalius showed in De humani corporis fabrica (1543) that the human mandible is a single bone.
Q 16The stapes, the smallest bone in the body, is named after its resemblance to what?
A stirrup
Classical Latin had no word for it, since stirrups did not exist in the ancient world.
Q 17About how long is the stapes bone in the middle ear?
2 to 3 mm
The stapes measures about 2 to 3 mm and weighs a few milligrams; it is the innermost of the three ossicles that pass vibrations to the inner ear.
Q 18On average, the femur accounts for roughly what fraction of a person's height?
About 27%
The femur is about 27% of stature, so a 1.8 m person has a femur near 48 cm, which lets forensic anthropologists estimate height from the bone alone.
Q 19Which skull bone houses the inner ear within its dense petrous part?
The temporal bone
The temporal bone's petrous part, the densest bone in the body, encloses the cochlea and semicircular canals of the inner ear.
Q 20Roughly how long is the human small intestine?
About 6.5 metres
The small intestine runs about 6.5 metres from the stomach to the large intestine, and its villi and microvilli give it an absorptive surface of roughly 30 square metres.
Q 24The brain is only about 2% of body weight, yet it uses roughly what share of the body's oxygen?
20%
It also takes 15% of cardiac output and a quarter of the body's glucose.
Q 25What is the largest of the nerve tracts connecting the brain's two hemispheres?
The corpus callosum
The corpus callosum bundles some 200 million axons between the hemispheres; severing it to treat epilepsy produced the famous 'split-brain' patients.
Q 26How much does an average adult brain weigh?
1.2–1.4 kg
An adult brain weighs about 1.2–1.4 kg, roughly 2% of body weight, with men's averaging a little heavier than women's.
Q 27Which layer of the body's outer covering contains no blood vessels at all?
The epidermis
The epidermis has no blood vessels; its cells are fed by diffusion from capillaries in the dermis below, which is why a shallow scrape does not bleed.
Q 28The stratum lucidum layer is found only where?
The palms and soles
The stratum lucidum appears only in the thick skin of the palms and soles, as a thin clear band between the stratum corneum and stratum granulosum.
Q 29Which protein in the dermis lets skin stretch and then snap back into shape?
Elastin
Elastin fibres in the dermis give skin its recoil; their breakdown with age and sun exposure is a main cause of sagging and wrinkles, while collagen provides strength.
Q 30Which part of the eye provides about two-thirds of its refractive power?
The cornea
The cornea provides roughly 43 of the eye's 60 dioptres of refractive power; the lens adds the adjustable remainder for near focus.