ITEC Level 2 Diploma for Beauty Specialists Practice Test

Compact bone is the dense tissue that forms the outer shell and feels solid when viewed without a microscope. Yet under the microscope it reveals an organized arrangement of tiny units called osteons (Haversian systems) with concentric lamellae around a central canal. Within those lamellae lie small spaces called lacunae housing osteocytes, and these are connected by slender channels called canaliculi. This dense packing of bone matrix with a network of microscopic cavities and canals creates a pattern that can resemble a honeycomb, even though the overall tissue feels solid to the naked eye.

If it were cancellous (spongy) bone, you’d see a true porous lattice of trabeculae both macroscopically and microscopically, which is the opposite of a solid appearance. Bone marrow isn’t bone tissue itself but the soft tissue inside the bone.