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The leg is the entire lower limb of the human body, including the foot, thigh or sometimes even the hip or buttock region. The major bones of the leg are the femur (thigh bone), tibia (shin bone), and adjacent fibula. There are 60 bones in each leg. The thigh is located in between the hip and knee.
The cranial pair (i.e. closer to the head) of limbs are known as the forelimbs or front legs, and the caudal pair (i.e. closer to the tail or coccyx) are the hindlimbs or back legs. In animals with a more erect bipedal posture (mainly hominid primates, particularly humans), the forelimbs and hindlimbs are often called upper and lower limbs ...
A hindlimb or back limb is one of the paired articulated appendages attached on the caudal end of a terrestrial tetrapod vertebrate's torso. [1] With reference to quadrupeds , the term hindleg or back leg is often used instead.
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).
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.
A leg is a structure of gross anatomy, meaning that it is large enough to be seen unaided. The components depend on the animal. The components depend on the animal. In humans and other mammals, a leg includes the bones , muscles , tendons , ligaments , blood vessels , nerves , and skin .
The femur is the only bone in the upper leg. The two femurs converge medially toward the knees, where they articulate with the proximal ends of the tibiae. The angle at which the femora converge is an important factor in determining the femoral-tibial angle. In females, thicker pelvic bones cause the femora to converge more than in males.
The implication that the ancestors of snakes had hind legs is confirmed by fossil evidence: the Cretaceous snake Pachyrhachis problematicus had hind legs complete with hip bones (ilium, pubis, ischium), thigh bone , leg bones (tibia, fibula) and foot bones (calcaneum, astragalus) as in tetrapods with legs today. [38]