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Dog · Bone · Pelvic limb

Femur

Os femoris

A head on a neck set into the acetabulum, a greater trochanter for the gluteals, a trochlea for the patella, and two condyles for the stifle.

System
Bone
Region
Pelvic limb
Sides
Paired: left and right
Named parts
14

Where it runs from and to

A muscle is told apart from its neighbours by what it takes hold of at each end, which is also what decides what it does when it shortens.

Action
A head on a neck set into the acetabulum, a greater trochanter for the gluteals, a trochlea for the patella, and two condyles for the stifle.

Written for Vetomica in its own words from the standard reference anatomy of the dog; the books it was checked against are listed below.

Named parts

What to look for on the bone, and what each part is called in the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria.

Proximal end

Head of the femurCaput ossis femoris
The ball set on a neck that fills the acetabulum.Miller 2020, p. 345
Fovea of the headFovea capitis
The pit in the head where the ligament of the head takes hold.Miller 2020, p. 345
Neck of the femurCollum femoris
The narrow part carrying the head off the shaft.Miller 2020, p. 345
Greater trochanterTrochanter major
The lateral prominence level with the head, pulled on by the gluteals.Miller 2020, p. 345
Lesser trochanterTrochanter minor
The medial prominence below it, for the iliopsoas.Miller 2020, p. 346
Trochanteric fossaFossa trochanterica
The deep pit on the medial side of the greater trochanter.Miller 2020, p. 346
Intertrochanteric crestCrista intertrochanterica
The ridge joining the two trochanters behind the neck.Miller 2020, p. 346

Body

Body of the femurCorpus femoris
The shaft, nearly cylindrical and bowed slightly forward.Miller 2020, p. 346
Popliteal surfaceFacies poplitea
The flat area at the back of the lower shaft between two lips.Miller 2020, p. 346

Distal end

Femoral trochleaTrochlea ossis femoris
The grooved front of the distal end that the patella rides in.Miller 2020, p. 347
Lateral condyleCondylus lateralis
The lateral of the two rounded surfaces that meet the tibia.Miller 2020, p. 347
Medial condyleCondylus medialis
The medial of the two.Miller 2020, p. 347
Intercondylar fossaFossa intercondylaris
The gap between the condyles, where the cruciate ligaments run.Miller 2020, p. 347
Extensor fossaFossa extensoria
The small pit on the lateral condyle where the long digital extensor arises.Miller 2020, p. 347

What it meets

Hip joint with the acetabulum; stifle with tibia and patella.

Bones it articulates with

  • Hip bone
  • Patella
  • Tibia
  • Lateral fabella (lateral sesamoid of M. gastrocnemius)
  • Medial fabella (medial sesamoid of M. gastrocnemius)
  • Popliteal sesamoid

Joints it forms

  • Hip joint
  • Stifle joint

Muscles and ligaments that take hold of it

  • Ligament of head of femur
  • Cruciate ligaments of stifle

Measured on the specimen

What the femur is in contact with in the model itself, with the share of the other structure’s surface it covers. A contact is not always a joint: bones that simply lie against one another are in this list too.

  • Tibia11%
  • Os coxae3%
  • Os sesamoideum musculi gastrocnemii I31%
  • Os sesamoideum musculi gastrocnemii II26%
  • Patella17%

Measured on the left side.

Terminology

English
Femur
Latin (NAV)
Os femoris
Status
A valid term in the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria

References

Where to read this structure in full, and where the named parts above were read.

  • Miller 2020Miller 2020, ch. 4 The Skeleton, Femur, PDF p. 340
  • König & Liebich 2020skeleton of the pelvic limb, p. 243-263
  • Dyce 2017ch. 17 Hindlimb of the Dog and Cat, p. 481
  • NAV 2017Osteologia