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The long bones of the human leg comprise nearly half of adult height. The other primary skeletal component of height are the vertebrae and skull. The outside of the bone consists of a layer of connective tissue called the periosteum. Additionally, the outer shell of the long bone is compact bone, then a deeper layer of cancellous bone (spongy ...
The femur (/ ˈ f iː m ər /; pl.: femurs or femora / ˈ f ɛ m ər ə /), [1] [2] or thigh bone, is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg .
The other two borders of the femur are only slightly marked: the lateral border extends from the antero-inferior angle of the greater trochanter to the anterior extremity of the lateral condyle; the medial border from the intertrochanteric line, at a point opposite the lesser trochanter, to the anterior extremity of the medial condyle.
A long bone is one that is cylindrical in shape, being longer than it is wide. However, the term describes the shape of a bone, not its size, which is relative. Long bones are found in the arms (humerus, ulna, radius) and legs (femur, tibia, fibula), as well as in the fingers (metacarpals, phalanges) and toes (metatarsals, phalanges).
The epiphyseal plate, epiphysial plate, physis, or growth plate is a hyaline cartilage plate in the metaphysis at each end of a long bone.It is the part of a long bone where new bone growth takes place; that is, the whole bone is alive, with maintenance remodeling throughout its existing bone tissue, but the growth plate is the place where the long bone grows longer (adds length).
It is composed of 270 bones at the time of birth, [2] but later decreases to 206: 80 bones in the axial skeleton and 126 bones in the appendicular skeleton. 172 of 206 bones are part of a pair and the remaining 34 are unpaired. [3] Many small accessory bones, such as sesamoid bones, are not included in this.
The metaphysis (pl.: metaphyses) is the neck portion of a long bone between the epiphysis and the diaphysis. [1] It contains the growth plate, the part of the bone that grows during childhood, and as it grows it ossifies near the diaphysis and the epiphyses.
The lower extremity of femur (or distal extremity) is the lower end of the femur (thigh bone) in human and other animals, closer to the knee. It is larger than the upper extremity of femur, is somewhat cuboid in form, but its transverse diameter is greater than its antero-posterior; it consists of two oblong eminences known as the lateral condyle and medial condyle.