The spine, or backbone, is a long column of bones that runs down the center of a person’s back. It is essential for many functions, such as movement, support, and protecting the spinal cord.

The muscles of the lower back help stabilize, rotate, flex, and extend the spinal column, which is a bony tower of 24 vertebrae that gives the body structure and houses the spinal cord.

Latimer will present "A Backache of Longstanding: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Human Vertebral Column" at the 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in ...