# 1995 VHS • Eyewitness Skeleton 60 FPS

Eyewitness Skeleton is a documentary program from the BBC Eyewitness series, featuring a computer-generated character named Smedley as a recurring host figure and structured around the Eyewitness Skeleton book. The program surveys skeletal systems across the animal kingdom: the endoskeleton shared by fish, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals; the human skeleton's reduction from over 300 bones at birth to 206 in adulthood; bird bone structure and air sacs enabling flight; locomotion mechanics from hip ball-and-socket joints to knee hinges; the fossil record from ammonites and dinosaurs through primitive hominids; the spine's evolution from horizontal to vertical for bipedal humans; cartilage in sharks and rays; the diversity of hind limb tools across species; bone composition as living tissue with marrow and mineral storage; rib cage function; vertebral count from nine in frogs to 400 in some snakes; exoskeletons and molting in crustaceans; coral reef formation; shell types from limpets to giant clams; the armadillo's toughened hide; turtle shell anatomy; the skull as lifestyle blueprint; jaws and teeth across herbivores, rodents, lions, snakes, and scarlet macaws; ivory and tusk adaptations in elephants, walruses, and narwhals; antlers and thermoregulation; cultural uses of the skull in Tibetan ceremony, pirate iconography, and Mexican Day of the Dead traditions; and the hand and forelimb as the most versatile skeletal structure. The behind-the-scenes segment describes…

- Kind: Film
- Year: 1995
- By: The Vista Group®
- Archive: [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/TheVistaGroup-EyewitnessSkeleton1995)
- Licence or status: none stated by the archive
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/ia/TheVistaGroup-EyewitnessSkeleton1995?play=1)