Leg

You don't need to be Editor-In-Chief to add or edit content to WikiDoc. You can begin to add to or edit text on this WikiDoc page by clicking on the edit button at the top of this page. Next enter or edit the information that you would like to appear here. Once you are done editing, scroll down and click the Save page button at the bottom of the page.

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Phone:617-525-6884

Please Take Over This Page and Apply to be Editor-In-Chief for this topic: There can be one or more than one Editor-In-Chief. You may also apply to be an Associate Editor-In-Chief of one of the subtopics below. Please mail us [2] to indicate your interest in serving either as an Editor-In-Chief of the entire topic or as an Associate Editor-In-Chief for a subtopic. Please be sure to attach your CV and or biographical sketch.

A leg is the part of an animal's body that supports the rest of the animal above the ground betwean the ankle and the hip and is used for locomotion. The end of the leg furthest from the animal's body is often either modified or attached to another structure that is modified to disperse the animal's weight on the ground (see foot). In bipedal vertebrate animals, the two lower limbs are usually referred to as the 'legs' and the two upper limbs as the 'arms' or 'wings' as the case may be.

Legs typically come in even-numbered quantities. Many taxonomic groups are characterized by the number of legs its members possess.

• Uniped: 1
• Biped: 2
• Tripedal: 3
• Quadruped: 4
• Quinped: 5
• Arthropoda: 4, 6, 8, 12, or 14
  • Some arthropods have more than a dozen legs; a few species possess over 100. Despite what their names might suggest,
    • Centipedes typically have fewer than one hundred legs
    • Millipedes have fewer than one thousand legs.

Evolution

The leg has evolved several times, most significantly among arthropods (crustaceans, insects, arachnids, et cetera) and vertebrates. In both cases, they are thought to have first evolved for locomotion underwater, then have been exploited for movement over land ever less desperate conditions as the generations passed.

The human leg

Main article: Human leg

The bones of the human leg are:

• Tibia, or shin bones
• Fibula, or calf bones

See also

• Body plan
• Arthropod leg
• Terrestrial locomotion in animals

Sources

http://www2.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/mwmednlmcs:Noha pdc:Beh de:Untere Extremität et:Jalgeo:Gambo eu:Hanka fr:Membre inférieur humain ko:다리 (동물) it:Arto inferiore la:Crus lt:Apatinės galūnės nl:Been (ledemaat) ja:脚simple:Leg fi:Jalka sv:Ben (extremitet)

WikiDoc Help Menu Quick Start.. Get Started Here! How to Login How to Search Pages How to Start a New Page How to Edit a Page Cheat Sheet Editing basics Learning Basic Formatting How to make Links in WikiDoc & to External Sites How to Make Lists How to Ignoring Formatting Adding References or Footnotes to Articles Tracking Changes You Have Made How to Put an Article Into a Category When Multiple Topics Should Go To The Same Page (MI, Acute MI, AMI) Using Redirection Advanced editing How to Make Tables How to Insert Images and Other Media How to Add Video Help:How to Make Columns Web Colors How To Make Templates How to Move Pages Inserting Dynamic Dates and Times Inserting WikiDoc Statistics Editing the Table of Contents Communicating your edits Let others know what you changed: The importance of Edit Summaries Minor Edits Edit Conflicts Help Videos You Can Watch Getting Started Video

Acknowledgement and Attribution Regarding Sources of Content

Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .