Dog · Set · Pelvic limb
The metatarsal bones
Ossa metatarsalia
The four bones between the hock and the hind toes. They are built like the metacarpals and are read the same way, base to head.
- Region
- Pelvic limb
- Members
- 4
- Own page
- None
- Named parts
- 4
How they differ along the set
What changes from one end of the series to the other, which is most of what there is to know about any one of them.
- Metatarsals II, III, IV and V are alike, and are the main bones of the hindpaw.Miller 2020, p. 365
- A typical one has a base flattened across and irregular in shape, and a shaft that is triangular above, four-sided at the middle and oval below.Miller 2020, p. 365
- Each shaft carries one large and several small nutrient foramina, entering the upper half.Miller 2020, p. 365
- Opposed grooves on the upper quarters of the second and third leave a space for the proximal perforating branch of the second dorsal metatarsal artery.Miller 2020, p. 365
- The head is ball-shaped and cut off from the body in front by a deep transverse sesamoid fossa, as in the forepaw.Miller 2020, p. 365
- A sagittal crest divides the plantar part of each head, the side nearer the axis of the paw being slightly the narrower.Miller 2020, p. 365
- The four interossei arise from the plantar side of their bases; the tibialis cranialis inserts on the medial base of the second and the fibularis brevis on the lateral base of the fifth.Miller 2020, p. 365
Named parts
What a member of this set carries, and what each part is called in the Nomina Anatomica Veterinaria.
- BaseBasis
- The upper end, flattened across and irregular, meeting the tarsal bones.Miller 2020, p. 365
- BodyCorpus
- The shaft: triangular above, four-sided at the middle, oval below.Miller 2020, p. 365
- HeadCaput
- The ball-shaped lower end that carries the proximal phalanx.Miller 2020, p. 365
- Sesamoid fossaFossa sesamoidalis
- The deep transverse hollow separating the head from the body in front.Miller 2020, p. 365
The members
In order along the set. Any one of them can be singled out in the model above, with the picker beneath it.
- Metatarsal 2Os metatarsale II
- Metatarsal 3Os metatarsale III
- Metatarsal 4Os metatarsale IV
- Metatarsal 5Os metatarsale V
References
Where to read this set in full, and where everything above was read.
- Miller 2020Miller 2020, ch. 4 The Skeleton, Metatarsus, PDF p. 364
- König & Liebich 2020skeleton of the pelvic limb, p. 243-263
- Dyce 2017ch. 17 Hindlimb of the Dog and Cat, p. 481
- NAV 2017Osteologia