Human leg
| Human leg | |
|---|---|
Lateral aspect of right leg | |
| Details | |
| Identifiers | |
| Latin | membrum inferius |
| FMA | 7184 |
| Anatomical terminology | |
The human leg is the lower limb of the human body, including the thigh, knee, lower leg, ankle, foot, or sometimes even the hip or buttock region. There are thirty bones in each leg. The major bones are the femur (thigh bone), tibia (shinbone), and adjacent fibula.
The part of the leg between the hip and the knee is called the thigh. The part between the knee and the ankle is called the lower leg, shank, crus, or in anatomy simply the leg. The lower leg includes the shin in the front and the calf at the back.
Legs are used for standing, many forms of human movement, recreation such as dancing, and constitute a significant portion of a person's mass. Evolution has led to the human leg's development into a mechanism specifically adapted for efficient bipedal gait. While the capacity to walk upright is not unique to humans, other primates can only achieve this for short periods and at a great expenditure of energy. In humans, female legs generally have greater hip anteversion and tibiofemoral angles, while male legs have longer femur and tibial lengths.