http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Corpusvertebrae.png

The vertebral centrum may be cartilaginous, develop as cartilage but be replaced by bone or mineralized, or form directly through intramembranous ossification.[VSAO]

Centra are represented by mineralized, calcified, or ossified portions that surround the notochord. The autocentrum, present in Danio and all other living teleosts, is formed by direct ossification outside the elastica externa of the notochord (Arratia, 1999).[TAO], Cylindrical body of bone, round or oval in cross section, which functionally replaces the notochord.[AAO], The body is the largest part of a vertebra, and is more or less cylindrical in shape. Its upper and lower surfaces are flattened and rough, and give attachment to the intervertebral fibrocartilages, and each presents a rim around its circumference. In front, the body is convex from side to side and concave from above downward. Behind, it is flat from above downward and slightly concave from side to side. Its anterior surface presents a few small apertures, for the passage of nutrient vessels. On the posterior surface is a single large, irregular aperture, or occasionally more than one, for the exit of the basi-vertebral veins from the body of the vertebra. [WP,unvetted][Wikipedia:Body_of_vertebra].

VSAO definition states it surrounds notochord but not applicable to post-natal.

holocentrum, autocentrum, arcocentrum

uberon

corpus vertebrae, centra, vertebral centra, vertebral centrum

UBERON:0001075

• intervertebral joint

• psoas minor muscle

• superior hypogastric nerve plexus
• annular epiphysis
• intervertebral cartilage

• ligament of vertebral column

• vertebral endplate
• fossa glenoidalis
• caput glenoidale
• central part of body of bony vertebral centrum