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Transitional vertebra

Radswiki and Dr Frank Gaillard et al.

A transitional vertebra is one that shares features of both vertebrae above and below, one at the junction between spinal morphological segments (e.g. cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral).

Examples include :

cervical rib arising from C7
13^thrib arising from T13 or L1 (depending on numbering)
lumbosacral transitional vertebra : most common

Their importance stems both because the altered anatomy can be symptomatic (e.g. cervical rib) or because they can lead to confusion when describing findings and thus lead to incorrect level operation.