Axis (anatomy)
In anatomy, the second cervical vertebra (C2) of the spine is named the axis (from Latin axis, "axle") or epistropheus.
It forms the pivot upon which the first cervical vertebra (the atlas), which carries the head, rotates.
The most distinctive characteristic of this bone is the strong odontoid process ("dens") which rises perpendicularly from the upper surface of the body. That peculiar feature gives to the vertebra a rarely used third name: vertebra dentata. In some judicial hangings the odontoid process may break and hit the medulla oblongata, causing death.
Read more about Axis (anatomy): The Body, Other Features, Additional Images
Famous quotes containing the word axis:
“A book is not an autonomous entity: it is a relation, an axis of innumerable relations. One literature differs from another, be it earlier or later, not because of the texts but because of the way they are read: if I could read any page from the present time—this one, for instance—as it will be read in the year 2000, I would know what the literature of the year 2000 would be like.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)