Vertebral body

The body of a vertebra is the cylindrical ventral part. The upper and lower surfaces of the vertebra body give attachment to the intervertebral discs, by the convex cranial extremity and the concave caudal extremity. On the ventral part of the body of cervical, cranial and caudal thoracic and lumbar vertebrae is a sagittal crest called the ventral crest. On the dorsal part of the body is the vertebral arch (neural arch) completing the vertebral foramen.