Leg

In general, a leg is any of the parts of an animal's body that support the rest of the body above the ground, and are used for locomotion.

Legs mostly come in even-numbered quantities that are characteristic of some taxonomic groups:

in vertebrates, 2 (the bipeds) or 4 (the quadrupeds);

in many familiar arthropods, 6, 8, or 12;

in some arthropods, more than a dozen and sometimes over 100 -- but despite what their names might suggest,

centipedes seldom have exactly a hundred, and

millipedes apparently never even approach a thousand.

In most quadrupeds and bipeds, legs consist of two main parts, attached to the body at one end, and to the foot at the other, and jointed at the knee.

The bones of the human leg are:

the femur (or thighbone), which attaches to the pelvis

the patella (kneecap)

the tibia (shinbone)

the fibula (calf bone)

The front edge of the tibia is not covered by a thick layer of muscle or fat: this is why being kicked in the shins is so painful.

Although some quadrupeds such as horses appear to have reverse-bending knees on their back legs, the apparent backwards-bending knee is actually the equivalent of an ankle joint, with the entire lower leg being part of the "foot", and the apparent ankle being the equivalent of a finger joint. The actual "true" equivalent of the knee joint, the stifle joint, is internal to the horse's body, and bends in the same direction as other knees.

Body plan

Arthropod leg

This anatomy article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Check out the following recipes that are tagged "Leg":
Lamb-And-Black Bean Chili, Spicy Orange Ginger& Lemon Chicken Breast, Lamb Klephtiko(Weir), Blackened Chicken, Babi Kecap I (Pork Cooked in Soya Sauce), Butterflied Leg Of Lamb With Roasted Vegetabl, Herbed Roast Leg Of Lamb With Roast Onions&, Lamb Sans Mint, Spicy Orange Ginger and Lemon Chicken Breast, Home Style Chicken, Dry Salt Cure For A 14-Lb Ham, Spanish/English Food Terms, Tarragon Lamb