The Spinal Cord is divided into five parts: The main 4 are the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral portions of the cord, each of which has several more-or-less redundant "levels" of its own, numbered according to the spinal column vertebrae through whose openings, the spinal "roots" emerge to form the peripheral nervous system. A fifth part of the spinal cord, the filum terminale, consists of tracts of fibers that extend below the sacral cord before exiting to the periphery.