Bone · Chest

Tenth rib

The last rib to reach the costal margin: its cartilage joins the ninth's, and beyond it the eleventh and twelfth end free. Its head carries a single facet, so like the first, eleventh and twelfth it meets the body of one vertebra only — its own. That single facet, with a short cartilage and a shallow angle, marks the tenth as the beginning of the transition from a fully attached rib to a floating one.