Anatomy quizzes › Upper Limb Anatomy

Upper Limb Anatomy Quiz

Fourteen questions on the arm, the eight wrist bones and the nerves that run the hand. Diagrams face you, so the thumb side is on your left. Tap an answer to see if you’re right.

  1. Question 1 of 14

    Name the highlighted bone.

    Front view
    1. Radius
    2. Femur
    3. Clavicle
    4. Humerus
    Show answer

    Answer: Humerus. The upper arm bone. A fracture through its shaft can injure the radial nerve, which runs in a groove around it.

  2. Question 2 of 14

    Name the highlighted forearm bone, on the thumb side.

    Front view
    1. Humerus
    2. Fibula
    3. Radius
    4. Ulna
    Show answer

    Answer: Radius. The radius. It rotates around the ulna when you turn your palm up and down, and it’s the bone broken in most wrist fractures.

  3. Question 3 of 14

    Name the highlighted forearm bone, on the little-finger side.

    Front view
    1. Tibia
    2. Ulna
    3. Radius
    4. Humerus
    Show answer

    Answer: Ulna. The ulna. Its top end, the olecranon, is the point of your elbow.

  4. Question 4 of 14

    Name the highlighted bone.

    Front view
    1. Clavicle
    2. First rib
    3. Sternum
    4. Scapula
    Show answer

    Answer: Clavicle. The collarbone, one of the most commonly broken bones, usually from a fall onto the shoulder or an outstretched hand.

  5. Question 5 of 14

    Name the highlighted wrist bone.

    Right hand, palm side
    1. Lunate
    2. Scaphoid
    3. Triquetrum
    4. Trapezium
    Show answer

    Answer: Scaphoid. The scaphoid, the most commonly broken carpal bone. Pain in the ‘anatomical snuffbox’ after a fall needs checking: its blood supply makes it slow to heal.

  6. Question 6 of 14

    Name the highlighted wrist bone, the one with a hook.

    Right hand, palm side
    1. Pisiform
    2. Capitate
    3. Triquetrum
    4. Hamate
    Show answer

    Answer: Hamate. The hamate. Its hook can break in golfers, batters and tennis players when the grip handle presses into the palm.

  7. Question 7 of 14

    Name the highlighted pea-shaped bone.

    Right hand, palm side
    1. Hamate
    2. Triquetrum
    3. Pisiform
    4. Lunate
    Show answer

    Answer: Pisiform. The pisiform (‘pea-shaped’), a sesamoid bone in the tendon of flexor carpi ulnaris. You can feel it at the heel of your hand on the little-finger side.

  8. Question 8 of 14

    Name the highlighted wrist bone at the base of the thumb.

    Right hand, palm side
    1. Trapezium
    2. Capitate
    3. Trapezoid
    4. Scaphoid
    Show answer

    Answer: Trapezium. The trapezium. Its joint with the thumb metacarpal is a common site of osteoarthritis.

  9. Question 9 of 14

    How many carpal (wrist) bones are there in each wrist?

    1. 7
    2. 14
    3. 8
    4. 5
    Show answer

    Answer: 8. Eight, in two rows of four: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform; then trapezium, trapezoid, capitate, hamate.

  10. Question 10 of 14

    Which nerve is squeezed in carpal tunnel syndrome?

    1. Radial nerve
    2. Ulnar nerve
    3. Musculocutaneous nerve
    4. Median nerve
    Show answer

    Answer: Median nerve. The median nerve: tingling in the thumb, index, middle and half the ring finger, often worse at night.

  11. Question 11 of 14

    Wrist drop after a fracture of the middle of the humerus suggests injury to which nerve?

    1. Median nerve
    2. Radial nerve
    3. Ulnar nerve
    4. Axillary nerve
    Show answer

    Answer: Radial nerve. The radial nerve winds around the humerus in the radial groove and supplies the muscles that lift the wrist.

  12. Question 12 of 14

    Numbness of the little finger and weak, clumsy fingers suggest which nerve?

    1. Ulnar nerve
    2. Median nerve
    3. Radial nerve
    4. Axillary nerve
    Show answer

    Answer: Ulnar nerve. The ulnar nerve supplies most of the small muscles of the hand. It’s the ‘funny bone’ nerve at the elbow.

  13. Question 13 of 14

    Which spinal nerve roots form the brachial plexus?

    1. C3 to C7
    2. T1 to T5
    3. C5 to T1
    4. C1 to C4
    Show answer

    Answer: C5 to T1. C5, C6, C7, C8 and T1. The plexus divides into the nerves of the whole arm.

  14. Question 14 of 14

    Which nerve supplies biceps?

    1. Musculocutaneous nerve
    2. Radial nerve
    3. Axillary nerve
    4. Median nerve
    Show answer

    Answer: Musculocutaneous nerve. The musculocutaneous nerve (C5–C7) supplies biceps, brachialis and coracobrachialis, then carries feeling to the outer forearm.

Want one a day? Play Anatomegaly, the daily anatomy game: five body parts, four options each, new every midnight.

Common questions

What are the 8 carpal bones?

Proximal row, thumb side first: scaphoid, lunate, triquetrum, pisiform. Distal row, little-finger side first: hamate, capitate, trapezoid, trapezium. The mnemonic “So Long To Pinky, Here Comes The Thumb” runs round the wrist in exactly that order.

What nerves supply the hand?

Three: the median nerve (thumb muscles and feeling in the thumb, index, middle and half the ring finger on the palm side), the ulnar nerve (most small hand muscles and the little finger) and the radial nerve (feeling over the back of the hand on the thumb side, and the forearm muscles that lift the wrist and straighten the fingers).

What is the brachial plexus?

A network of nerves formed from the C5 to T1 spinal roots in the neck and armpit. It divides into the main nerves of the arm: musculocutaneous, axillary, radial, median and ulnar.

How do I learn upper limb anatomy fast?

Learn the bones first, then the muscle groups by action, then link each muscle group to its nerve. Clinical patterns help it stick: wrist drop means radial nerve, carpal tunnel means median nerve.

More anatomy quizzes

Reviewed 8 November 2026 by a Malady Wise GP. Diagrams are simplified, original sketches, not to scale. General education, not personal medical advice.