Anatomy Guide › Thorax
Manubrium of Sternum
The sternum, or breastbone, is not one bone but three stacked segments, and the manubrium is the topmost — a broad, roughly trapezoidal plate whose name is Latin for 'handle,' as in the handle of a sword. Press gently into the base of your throat and the U-shaped dip you feel between the collarbones is the manubrium's upper border, the jugular notch.
The manubrium is a busy docking station. Each clavicle plugs into its upper corners at the sternoclavicular joints — the only true joints between arms and trunk. The first ribs fuse to its sides by bars of cartilage, and the second ribs attach exactly at the ridge where the manubrium meets the sternal body. That ridge, the sternal angle, is one of the most useful landmarks in clinical medicine: it is palpable in nearly everyone and reliably marks the level where the trachea splits into the two main bronchi and where the aortic arch begins and ends.
Behind the manubrium lie some of the most vital structures in the chest: the great veins merging toward the heart, the arch of the aorta, and in children the thymus gland. The slight mobility of the joint between manubrium and sternal body lets the rib cage flex as you breathe deeply.
For Anamo players, the manubrium is a high-value guess in the upper chest. It touches the clavicles and sits near the subclavian vessels and aorta, so its heat reading efficiently separates 'neck-side' answers from 'heart-side' answers in the thorax region.
- Its name is Latin for 'handle' — the sternum was likened to a sword
- Hosts the only skeletal joints between the arms and the trunk
- The sternal angle at its lower border marks where the trachea splits
- The aortic arch and great veins lie directly behind it
Think you could find the manubrium of sternum on a 3D model? Play Anamo and test yourself — every guess is color-coded by how close it lands to the mystery structure.