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Third lumbar vertebra: anatomy, location and function

The third of the five lumbar vertebrae, labelled L3, in the lower back. Bears the weight of the upper body and allows flexion and extension of the lower back.

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Highlighted in the model: Third lumbar vertebra. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Third lumbar vertebra at a glance

Also called
L3
What it is
The third of the five lumbar vertebrae, labelled L3, in the lower back.
Location
Lies in the middle of the lumbar spine between L2 and L4.
Function
Bears the weight of the upper body and allows flexion and extension of the lower back.
Body system
Skeletal · single, midline structure
FMA ID
FMA13074 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • Has a large, kidney-shaped body and a short, blunt spinous process projecting straight backward.
  • Its transverse processes are usually the longest of the lumbar vertebrae.
  • The subcostal plane, through the lowest points of the costal margin, lies at about L3.

Structures next to the third lumbar vertebra

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Third lumbar vertebra (FMA13074). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
  3. Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.

Related anatomy

Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.