metatarsal's Usage Examples:

In porcupines and hares the tendons of the flexor digitorum longus and flexor hallucis longus are connected in the foot, while in the rats and squirrels they are separate, and the flexor digitorum longus is generally inserted into the metatarsal of the first toe.

The primitive Artiodactyla thus probably had the typical number (44) of incisor, canine and molar teeth, brachyodont molars, conical odontoid process, four distinct toes on each foot, with metacarpal, metatarsal and all the tarsal bones distinct, and no frontal appendages.

The three middle metatarsals become fused together into a cannon bone; the upper part of the third middle metatarsal projects behind and forms the so-called hypotarsus, which in various ways, characteristic of the different groups of birds (with one or more sulci, grooved or perforated), acts as guiding pulley to the tendons of the flexor muscles of the toes.

Hind foot long and narrow, mainly composed of the strongly developed fourth toe, terminating in a conical pointed nail, with a strong pad behind it; the first toe represented by a rudimentary metatarsal; the remaining toes completely developed, with claws, but exceedingly slender; the united second and third reaching a little way beyond the metatarso-phalangeal articulation of the fourth; the fifth somewhat shorter.

Reduction and final loss of outer pair of digits (second and fifth), with coalescence of the metacarpal and metatarsal bones of the two middle digits to form a cannon-bone.

There is no trace of a first toe, and the fifth metatarsal is represented by a small nodule.

The most interesting genera are, however, the Upper Oligocene and Lower Miocene Gelocus and Prodremotherium, which have perfectly selenodont teeth, and the third and fourth metacarpal and metatarsal bones respectively fused into an imperfect cannon-bone, with the reduction of the lateral metacarpals and metatarsals to mere remnants of their upper and lower extremities.

Outer toes small and rudimentary, or in some cases entirely suppressed; their metacarpal or metatarsal bones never complete.

Hind extremities proportionally longer with inner toe represented only by a small metatarsal bone.

First hind toe rudimentary, clawless or absent; its metatarsal bone always present.

Synonyms:

os, bone, metatarsus,

Antonyms:

boneless, black,