Bone · Chest

Eleventh rib

A floating rib: it has no tubercle and no neck, its head bears a single facet, and its front end simply tapers to a cartilage-capped point that ends within the muscle of the abdominal wall. It is short, gently curved and lies deep enough that it is found only by pressing in at the back above the waist. The diaphragm, latissimus dorsi and the abdominal wall muscles attach at or near its free end, so it is held almost entirely by soft tissue rather than by joints.