Comparison of Structural Features of Cervical,Thoracic,Lumbar,sacral Vertebrae

	Cervical	Thorasic	Lumbar
Size	small	larger	largest
Foramina	one vertebral and two transverse	one vertebral	one vertebral
Spinous processes	slender and often bifid (C2-C6)	long and fairly thick (most project inferiorly)	short and blunt (project posteriorly rather than inferiorly)
Transverse processes	small	fairly large	large and blunt
Articular facets for ribs	absent	present	absent
Direction of articular facets (superior)	posterosuperior	posterolateral	medial
Direction of articular facets (inferior)	anteroinferior	anteromedial	lateral
Size of intervertebral discs	Thick relative to size of vertebral bodies	Thin relative to vertebral bodies	Massive

*Sacral-consists of five rudimentary vertebrae

Triangular shapearticulate with lamber 5 vertebrae

Articulate with illium

Form Sacroiliac joint

Inferiorly articulate with coccyx

Anterior edge of the base the promontory protrudes into the pelvic cavity

Vertebral foramina are present on each side

series of foramina for the passage of nerves

Cervical(C4)

Thoracic(T6)

Lumbar(L3)

Sacrum and Coccyx