Leg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the weight bearing and locomotive structure. For legs in humans, see Human
leg. For other uses, see Leg (disambiguation).
"Legs" redirects here. For other uses, see Legs (disambiguation).

Diagram of an insect leg

A leg is a weight bearing and locomotive anatomical structure, usually having a columnar shape.
During locomotion, legs function as "extensible struts".[1] The combination of movements at all
joints can be modeled as a single, linear element capable of changing length and rotating about
an omnidirectional "hip" joint.
As an anatomical animal structure it is used for locomotion. The distal end is often modified to
distribute force (such as a foot). Most animals have an even number of legs.
As a component of furniture it is used for the economy of materials needed to provide the support
for the useful surface, the table top or chair seat.

Contents
[hide]

 1Terminology
 2Components
 3Tetrapod legs
 4Arthropod leg
 5Robotic leg
 6Prosthetic leg
 7References
Terminology[edit]
 Uniped: 1 leg, such as clams
 Biped: 2 legs, such as humans and birds
 Triped: 3 legs, which does not occur naturally in healthy animals
 Quadruped: 4 legs, such as dogs and horses
Many taxa are characterized by the number of legs:

 Tetrapods have four legs.

 Arthropoda: 4, 6 (Insecta), 8, 12, or 14 legs. Some arthropods have more than a dozen legs;
a few species possess over 100. Despite what their names might
suggest, centipedes ("hundred feet") may have fewer than 20 or more than 300 legs,
and millipedes ("thousand feet") have fewer than 1,000 legs, but up to 750.

Components[edit]
A leg is a structure of gross anatomy, meaning that it is large enough to be seen unaided. The
components depend on the animal. In humans and other mammals, a leg includes
the bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, nerves, and skin. In insects, the leg
includes most of these things, except that insects have an exoskeleton that replaces the function
of both the bones and the skin.
Sometimes the end of the leg, or foot, is considered part of the leg; other times it is considered
separate. Similarly, the hip joint or other place where the leg attaches to the main body may be
considered separate or part of the leg.

Tetrapod legs[edit]

The leg of a wooly mammoth(reconstruction).

 In tetrapod anatomy, leg is used to refer to the entire limb. In human medicine the precise
definition refers[2][3][4] only to the segment between the knee and the ankle. This lower segment is
also called the shank,[5][6] and the front (anterior) of the segment is called the shin or pretibia.
In bipedal tetrapods, the two lower limbs are referred to as the "legs" and the two upper limbs as
"arms" or "wings" as the case may be.

 Human leg

Arthropod leg[edit]
 Arthropod leg

Robotic leg[edit]
A robotic leg is moved by an actuator, which is a type of motor for moving or controlling a
mechanism or system. It is operated by a source of energy, usually in the form of an electric
current, hydraulic fluid pressure or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into some kind
of motion.

Prosthetic leg[edit]
A prosthetic leg, a Prosthesis, is an artificial leg that is used to replace one that has been lost.

References[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Leg.

1. Jump up^ "Studies in the Mechanics of the Tetrapod Skeleton". Biologists.org. Retrieved 21
September 2010.
2. Jump up^ "Leg". Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). National Library of Medicine.
Retrieved 2009-04-18.
3. Jump up^ "Leg". Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Healthcare Consumers. Mercksource.
Retrieved 2009-04-18.
4. Jump up^ "leg". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
5. Jump up^ Kardong, Kenneth V. (2009). Vertebrates: Comparative anatomy, function,
evolution (5th ed.). McGraw-Hill. p. 340. ISBN 978-0-07-304058-5.
6. Jump up^ "shank". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Categories:
 Animal locomotion
 Animal anatomy
 Lower limb anatomy
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 This page was last edited on 26 February 2018, at 03:20.

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