Fish bone

Fish bone is any bony tissue in a fish, although in common usage the term refers specifically to delicate parts of the non-vertebral skeleton of such as ribs, fin spines and intramuscular bones. Not all fish have fish bones in this sense; for instance, eels and anglerfish do not possess bones other than the cranium and the vertebrae.

Bones of a black bass

Fish bones support the core muscles without inhibiting their mobility. There are several series of fish bones: Epineuralia, Epicentralia, Epipleuralia and Myorhabdoi.

In cuisine, fish bones are usually removed and not eaten. Because of their slim, tapered shape, fish bones may get swallowed by accident and cause painful foreign body obstruction in the esophagus, which will have to be surgically removed by a doctor.

Fish bones have been used to bioremediate lead from contaminated soil.^[1][2]

See also

• Fish meal

References

1. Kris S. Freeman (January 2012). "Remediating Soil Lead with Fishbones". Environmental Health Perspectives. 120 (1): a20–a21. doi:10.1289/ehp.120-a20a. PMC 3261960. PMID 22214821.
2. "Battling lead contamination, one fish bone at a time". Archived from the original on 2013-06-14. Retrieved 2019-05-10.

• Patterson, Colin; Johnson, G. David (1995). "The intermuscular bones and ligaments of teleostean fishes". Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology. 559 (559): 1–85. doi:10.5479/si.00810282.559. hdl:handle/10088/5150.