metatarsals's Usage Examples:

) Lateral digits of both fore and hind feet almost always present, and frequently the lower ends of the metacarpals and the metatarsals as well.

The middle metacarpals and metatarsals generally confluent, the outer ones (second and fifth) slender but complete, i.

The hind-limb is typically avine, with intertarsal joint, distally reduced fibula, and the three elongated metatarsals which show already considerable anchylosis; reduction of the toes to four, with 2, 3, 4 and 5 phalanges; the hallux is separate, and as usual in recent birds posterior in position.

2 The three metatarsals in the penguins are not, as in other birds, united for the whole of their length, but only at the extremities, thus preserving a portion of their originally distinct existence, a fact probably attributable to arrest of development, since the researches of C.

The Dipodinae, on the other hand, are leaping rodents, with the metatarsals elongated, a small upper premolar present or absent, and the crowns of the molars tall.

The pelvis and hind-limbs much resemble those of a running bird, such as those of an emu or the extinct moa; but the basal bones (metatarsals) of the three-toed foot remain separate throughout life, thus differing from those of the running birds, which are firmly fused together even in the young adult.

In the Jaculidae the metatarsals are greatly elongated, and in some of the species, as jerboas, they are welded together.

The least specialized genus is Zapus, containing the jumping-mice of North America, with one outlying Siberian species, in which the five metatarsals are free, as are also the cervical vertebrae, the small upper premolar being retained.

Of the metatarsals the fifth occurs as an embryonic vestige near the joint; the first is reduced to its distal portion, and is, with the hallux, shoved on to the inner and posterior side of the foot, at least in the majority of birds.

In the forelimbs the bones corresponding to the third and fourth metacarpals of the pig's foot are fused into a cannon-bone; and a similar condition obtains in the case of the corresponding metatarsals in the hind-limbs.

Synonyms:

metatarsus, bone, os,

Antonyms:

black, boneless,