The Development of the Cervical Spine

The development of the cervical spine can be divided into three stages [4, 7, 8]: 1. Segmentation, occurring between 3 and 6 weeks 2. Chondrification, starting at 6 weeks 3. Ossification, starting at 10–12 weeks The stage of segmentation during which somites from each side migrate towards the neural tube to form the vertebral column, will not be discussed here as it was dealt with in Chap. 4.