New Guinea
New Guinea is a large island separated by a shallow sea from the rest of the Australian continent. It is the world's third-largest island, after Australia and Greenland, covering a land area of 785,753 km2, arguably the largest wholly or within the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania; the eastern half of the island is the major land mass of the independent state of Papua New Guinea. The western half, referred to as either Western New Guinea or West Papua, has been administered by Indonesia since 1963 and comprises the provinces of Papua and West Papua; the island has been known by various names: The name Papua was used to refer to parts of the island before contact with the West. Its etymology is unclear; the name came from papo and ua, which means "not united" or, "territory that geographically is far away". Ploeg reports that the word papua is said to derive from the Malay word papua or pua-pua, meaning "frizzly-haired", referring to the curly hair of the inhabitants of these areas. Another possibility, put forward by Sollewijn Gelpke in 1993, is that it comes from the Biak phrase sup i papwa which means'the land below' and refers to the islands west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera.
Whatever its origin, the name Papua came to be associated with this area, more with Halmahera, known to the Portuguese by this name during the era of their colonization in this part of the world. When the Portuguese and Spanish explorers arrived in the island via the Spice Islands, they referred to the island as Papua. However, the name New Guinea was used by Westerners starting with the Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez in 1545, referring to the similarities of the indigenous people's appearance with the natives of the Guinea region of Africa; the name is one of several toponyms sharing similar etymologies meaning "land of the blacks" or similar meanings, in reference to the dark skin of the inhabitants. The Dutch, who arrived under Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten, called it Schouten island, but this name was used only to refer to islands off the north coast of Papua proper, the Schouten Islands or Biak Island; when the Dutch colonized it as part of Netherlands East Indies, they called it Nieuw Guinea.
The name Irian was used in the Indonesian language to refer to the island and Indonesian province, as "Irian Jaya Province". The name was promoted in 1945 by brother of the future governor Frans Kaisiepo, it is taken from the Biak language of Biak Island, means "to rise", or "rising spirit". Irian is the name used in the Biak language and other languages such as Serui and Waropen; the name was used until 2001, when the name Papua was again used for the province. The name Irian, favored by natives, is now considered to be a name imposed by the authority of Jakarta. New Guinea is an island to the north of the Australian mainland, but south of the equator, it is isolated by the Arafura Sea to the west, the Torres Strait and Coral Sea to the east. Sometimes considered to be the easternmost island of the Indonesian archipelago, it lies north of Australia's Top End, the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York peninsula, west of the Bismarck Archipelago and the Solomon Islands Archipelago. Politically, the western half of the island comprises two provinces of Indonesia: Papua and West Papua.
The eastern half forms the mainland of the country of Papua New Guinea. The shape of New Guinea is compared to that of a bird-of-paradise, this results in the usual names for the two extremes of the island: the Bird's Head Peninsula in the northwest, the Bird's Tail Peninsula in the southeast. A spine of east–west mountains, the New Guinea Highlands, dominates the geography of New Guinea, stretching over 1,600 km from the'head' to the'tail' of the island, with many high mountains over 4,000 m; the western-half of the island of New Guinea contains the highest mountains in Oceania, rising up to 4,884 m high, higher than Mont Blanc in Europe, ensuring a steady supply of rain from the equatorial atmosphere. The tree line is around 4,000 m elevation and the tallest peaks contain permanent equatorial glaciers—which have been retreating since at least 1936. Various other smaller mountain ranges occur both west of the central ranges. Except in high elevations, most areas possess a warm humid climate throughout the year, with some seasonal variation associated with the northeast monsoon season.
The highest peaks on the island of New Guinea are: Puncak Jaya, sometimes known by its former Dutch name Carstensz Pyramid, is a mist-covered limestone mountain peak on the Indonesian side of the border. At 4,884 metres, Puncak Jaya makes New Guinea the world's fourth-highest landmass after Afro-Eurasia and Antarctica. Puncak Mandala located in Papua, is the second-highest peak on the island at 4,760 metres. Puncak Trikora in Papua, is 4,750 metres. Mount Wilhelm is the highest peak on the PNG side of the border at 4,509 metres, its granite peak is the highest point of the Bismarck Range. Mount Giluwe 4,368 metres is the second-highest summit in PNG, it is the highest volcanic peak in Oceania. Another major habitat featur
Palaeognathae
Palaeognathae, or paleognaths, is one of the two living clades of birds – the other being Neognathae. Together, these two clades form the clade Neornithes. Palaeognathae contains five extant branches of flightless lineages, termed ratites, one flying lineage, the Neotropic tinamous. There are 47 species of tinamous, 5 of kiwis, 3 of cassowaries, 1 of emus, 2 of rheas and 2 of ostrich. Recent research has indicated that paleognaths are monophyletic but the traditional taxonomic split between flightless and flighted forms is incorrect. There are three extinct groups, the Lithornithiformes, the Dinornithiformes and the Aepyornithiformes, that are undisputed members of Palaeognathae. There are other extinct birds which have been allied with the Palaeognathae by at least one author, but their affinities are a matter of dispute; the word Paleognath is derived from the ancient Greek for "old jaws" in reference to the skeletal anatomy of the palate, described as more primitive and reptilian than that in other birds.
Paleognathous birds retain some basal morphological characters but are by no means living fossils as their genomes continued to evolve at the DNA level under selective pressure at rates comparable to the Neognathae branch of living birds, though there is some controversy about the precise relationship between them and the other birds. There are several other scientific controversies about their evolution. No unambiguously paleognathous fossil birds are known until the Cenozoic, but there have been many reports of putative paleognathes, it has long been inferred that they may have evolved in the Cretaceous. Given the northern hemisphere location of the morphologically most basal fossil forms, a Laurasian origin for the group can be inferred; the present entirely Gondwanan distribution would have resulted from multiple colonisations of the southern landmasses by flying forms that subsequently evolved flightlessness, in many cases, gigantism. One study of molecular and paleontological data found that modern bird orders, including the paleognathous ones, began diverging from one another in the Early Cretaceous.
Benton summarized this and other molecular studies as implying that paleognaths should have arisen 110 to 120 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous. He points out, that there is no fossil record until 70 million years ago, leaving a 45 million year gap, he asks whether the paleognath fossils will be found one day, or whether the estimated rates of molecular evolution are too slow, that bird evolution accelerated during an adaptive radiation after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Other authors questioned the monophyly of the Palaeognathae on various grounds, suggesting that they could be a hodgepodge of unrelated birds that have come to be grouped together because they are coincidentally flightless. Unrelated birds might have developed ratite-like anatomies multiple times around the world through convergent evolution. McDowell asserted that the similarities in the palate anatomy of paleognathes might be neoteny, or retained embryonic features, he noted that there were other feature of the skull, such as the retention of sutures into adulthood, that were like those of juvenile birds.
Thus the characteristic palate was a frozen stage that many carinate bird embryos passed through during development. The retention of early developmental stages may have been a mechanism by which various birds became flightless and came to look similar to one another. Hope reviewed all known bird fossils from the Mesozoic looking for evidence of the origin of the evolutionary radiation of the Neornithes; that radiation would signal that the paleognaths had diverged. She notes five Early Cretaceous taxa, she finds that none of them can be assigned as such. However, she does find evidence that the Neognathae and, therefore the Palaeognathae had diverged no than the Early Campanian age of the Cretaceous period. Vegavis is a fossil bird from the Albian period of Early Cretaceous Antarctica. Vegavis is most related to true ducks; because all phylogenetic analyses predict that ducks diverged after paleognathes, this is evidence that paleognathes had arisen well before that time. An exceptionally preserved specimen of the extinct flying paleognathe Lithornis was published by Leonard et al. in 2005.
It is an articulated and nearly complete fossil from the early Eocene of Denmark, thought to have the best preserved lithornithiform skull found. The authors concluded that Lithornis was a close sister taxon to tinamous, rather than ostriches, that the lithorniforms + tinamous were the most basal paleognaths, they concluded that all ratites, were monophyletic, descending from one common ancestor that became flightless. They interpret the paleognath-like Limenavis, from Early Cretaceous Patagonia, as possible evidence of a Cretaceous and monophyletic origin for paleognathes. An ambitious genomic analysis of the living birds was performed in 2007, it contradicted Leonard et al.. It found that tinamous are not primitive among the most advanced; this requires multiple events of flightlessness within the paleognathes and refutes the Gondwana vicariance hypothesis. The st
Museum Wiesbaden
The Museum Wiesbaden is a two-branch museum of art and natural history in the Hessian capital of Wiesbaden, Germany. It is one of the three Hessian State museums, in addition to the museums in Darmstadt; the foundation of the three museums traces back to the citizens of the city and to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who stayed in Wiesbaden in 1814/1815 for a rehabilitation measure, worked hard to establish such a cultural institution. In 1825 he persuaded the Frankfurter private collector Johann Isaac Freiherr von Gerning to donate his extensive collections of works of art, antiquities and in kind to the Duchy of Nassau in return for the payment of an annuity for life. Under the responsibility of the newly founded associations, but controlled by the ducal government, the citizens of Wiesbaden and the region were able to expand these collections. Together with the pieces of the Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung founded in 1812, three independent museums emerged. In addition to the Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung the Nassauischer Verein für Naturkunde" and the Nassauischer Kunstverein were responsible for these museums.
Following the death of the Duke, the Hereditary Prince's Palace at Wilhelmstraße, built for his son, was now available for other purposes. In contrast to other cities, at a early stage it was possible to find rooms for the cultural assets collected by the citizenry. In 1821 the three museums and the regional library of Hessen were thus able to move into the palace, nowadays the seat of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Wiesbaden. Around the middle of the 19th century the building became too small, due to the busy collection activities and new acquisitions; the call for a new building became louder. After the three museums came under Prussian control in 1866, the city of Wiesbaden took over these institutions in 1899; this change was accepted because Wiesbaden had sufficient funds at the end of the 19th century to promote culture. According to plans by architect Theodor Fischer, the foundation stone for a new building with three wings was laid at the corner of Wilhelmstraße/Rheinstraße in 1913.
The banker's mansion Mons had stood there, in which the reception building of Ludwigsbahnhof was housed until 1906. The interior design of the three houses was influenced to a large extent by the three directors and the curators, as there were different needs; the first to open was the Gemäldegalerie on October 1, 1915. In the same year the Natural Sciences Collection was able to move into the new building, but it was not until after the end of the First World War that the Natural Sciences Museum and the Museum of Nassau Antiquities reopened on 15 July 1920. Half of the picture gallery was to be used for changing exhibitions, which were carried out by the Nassauischer Kunstverein in the 1920s and early 1930s. During this time, citizens of Wiesbaden contributed to important additions to the collections; the natural science collections showed systematic exhibitions on topics of geology and biology. Ecological aspects were presented for the first time. During the Second World War, the building was used for military purposes.
With few exceptions, the collections survived the war unscathed. However, the exhibitions were dismantled and most of the showcases were damaged. Only the rooms were able to regain their original function after renovation; this delay had another reason: the Americans, who moved to Wiesbaden after 1945, turned the museum into a Central Collecting Point. Temporarily stored art treasures were shown, such as the bust of Nefertiti or the painting The Man with the Golden Helmet, attributed to Rembrandt at the time. After their return, a collection was rebuilt from the 1950s onwards with few resources. Clemens Weiler played a major role in the construction of the Alexej von Jawlensky-Collection, today the most important collection of the house; the Natural Science Museum was rebuilt by Friedrich Heineck, impeached of office during the war. It was the aim of the museum to show in particular info on the biomes in the exhibitions; the reconstruction was not successful because rooms were still being used by other people.
In 1973 the three museums came into the possession of the state of Hesse. Since that time they have been united in the Museum Wiesbaden; the Nassauischer Kunstverein, housed in the museum, was moved to the historic villa on Wilhelmstraße 15 in the immediate vicinity. Since 2010 Alexander Klar has been director of the museum, he succeeds Volker Rattemeyer. Under his leadership, in 2007 it was elected by the International Association of Art Critics as Museum of the Year. From 1994 to 1997, the Kassel architects Schultze and Schulze renovated the rooms of the art collection, from 2003 to 2006 the roofs, the entrance area and the lecture hall and opened up new exhibition rooms of the art collection. From 2007 to 2012, the north and south wings were to be renovated. In the north wing, the natural history collection can be shown again from 2013 onwards. According to press reports and reports from the state government, the collection of Nassauian antiquities SNA was handed over to the city of Wiesbaden in 2009.
The Old Masters are to be shown in the freed south wing. From 1994 to 1997, the Kassel architects Schultze and Schulze renovated the rooms of t
Chordate
A chordate is an animal constituting the phylum Chordata. During some period of their life cycle, chordates possess a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, a post-anal tail: these five anatomical features define this phylum. Chordates are bilaterally symmetric; the Chordata and Ambulacraria together form the superphylum Deuterostomia. Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Vertebrata. There are extinct taxa such as the Vetulicolia. Hemichordata has been presented as a fourth chordate subphylum, but now is treated as a separate phylum: hemichordates and Echinodermata form the Ambulacraria, the sister phylum of the Chordates. Of the more than 65,000 living species of chordates, about half are bony fish that are members of the superclass Osteichthyes. Chordate fossils have been found from as early as the Cambrian explosion, 541 million years ago. Cladistically, vertebrates - chordates with the notochord replaced by a vertebral column during development - are considered to be a subgroup of the clade Craniata, which consists of chordates with a skull.
The Craniata and Tunicata compose the clade Olfactores. Chordates form a phylum of animals that are defined by having at some stage in their lives all of the following anatomical features: A notochord, a stiff rod of cartilage that extends along the inside of the body. Among the vertebrate sub-group of chordates the notochord develops into the spine, in wholly aquatic species this helps the animal to swim by flexing its tail. A dorsal neural tube. In fish and other vertebrates, this develops into the spinal cord, the main communications trunk of the nervous system. Pharyngeal slits; the pharynx is the part of the throat behind the mouth. In fish, the slits are modified to form gills, but in some other chordates they are part of a filter-feeding system that extracts particles of food from the water in which the animals live. Post-anal tail. A muscular tail that extends backwards behind the anus. An endostyle; this is a groove in the ventral wall of the pharynx. In filter-feeding species it produces mucus to gather food particles, which helps in transporting food to the esophagus.
It stores iodine, may be a precursor of the vertebrate thyroid gland. There are soft constraints that separate chordates from certain other biological lineages, but are not part of the formal definition: All chordates are deuterostomes; this means. All chordates are based on a bilateral body plan. All chordates are coelomates, have a fluid filled body cavity called a coelom with a complete lining called peritoneum derived from mesoderm; the following schema is from the third edition of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The invertebrate chordate classes are from Fishes of the World. While it is structured so as to reflect evolutionary relationships, it retains the traditional ranks used in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylum Chordata †Vetulicolia? Subphylum Cephalochordata – Class Leptocardii Clade Olfactores Subphylum Tunicata – Class Ascidiacea Class Thaliacea Class Appendicularia Class Sorberacea Subphylum Vertebrata Infraphylum incertae sedis Cyclostomata Superclass'Agnatha' paraphyletic Class Myxini Class Petromyzontida or Hyperoartia Class †Conodonta Class †Myllokunmingiida Class †Pteraspidomorphi Class †Thelodonti Class †Anaspida Class †Cephalaspidomorphi Infraphylum Gnathostomata Class †Placodermi Class Chondrichthyes Class †Acanthodii Superclass Osteichthyes Class Actinopterygii Class Sarcopterygii Superclass Tetrapoda Class Amphibia Class Sauropsida Class Synapsida Craniates, one of the three subdivisions of chordates, all have distinct skulls.
They include the hagfish. Michael J. Benton commented that "craniates are characterized by their heads, just as chordates, or all deuterostomes, are by their tails". Most craniates are vertebrates; these consist of a series of bony or cartilaginous cylindrical vertebrae with neural arches that protect the spinal cord, with projections that link the vertebrae. However hagfish have incomplete braincases and no vertebrae, are therefore not regarded as vertebrates, but as members of the craniates, the group from which vertebrates are thought to have evolved; however the cladistic exclusion of hagfish from the vertebrates is controversial, as they ma
Bird
Birds known as Aves, are a group of endothermic vertebrates, characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, a strong yet lightweight skeleton. Birds range in size from the 5 cm bee hummingbird to the 2.75 m ostrich. They rank as the world's most numerically-successful class of tetrapods, with ten thousand living species, more than half of these being passerines, sometimes known as perching birds. Birds have wings which are less developed depending on the species. Wings, which evolved from forelimbs, gave birds the ability to fly, although further evolution has led to the loss of flight in flightless birds, including ratites and diverse endemic island species of birds; the digestive and respiratory systems of birds are uniquely adapted for flight. Some bird species of aquatic environments seabirds and some waterbirds, have further evolved for swimming; the fossil record demonstrates that birds are modern feathered dinosaurs, having evolved from earlier feathered dinosaurs within the theropod group, which are traditionally placed within the saurischian dinosaurs.
The closest living relatives of birds are the crocodilians. Primitive bird-like dinosaurs that lie outside class Aves proper, in the broader group Avialae, have been found dating back to the mid-Jurassic period, around 170 million years ago. Many of these early "stem-birds", such as Archaeopteryx, were not yet capable of powered flight, many retained primitive characteristics like toothy jaws in place of beaks, long bony tails. DNA-based evidence finds that birds diversified around the time of the Cretaceous–Palaeogene extinction event 66 million years ago, which killed off the pterosaurs and all the non-avian dinosaur lineages, but birds those in the southern continents, survived this event and migrated to other parts of the world while diversifying during periods of global cooling. This makes them the sole surviving dinosaurs according to cladistics; some birds corvids and parrots, are among the most intelligent animals. Many species annually migrate great distances. Birds are social, communicating with visual signals and bird songs, participating in such social behaviours as cooperative breeding and hunting and mobbing of predators.
The vast majority of bird species are monogamous for one breeding season at a time, sometimes for years, but for life. Other species have breeding systems that are polygynous or polyandrous. Birds produce offspring by laying eggs, they are laid in a nest and incubated by the parents. Most birds have an extended period of parental care after hatching; some birds, such as hens, lay eggs when not fertilised, though unfertilised eggs do not produce offspring. Many species of birds are economically important as food for human consumption and raw material in manufacturing, with domesticated and undomesticated birds being important sources of eggs and feathers. Songbirds and other species are popular as pets. Guano is harvested for use as a fertiliser. Birds prominently figure throughout human culture. About 120–130 species have become extinct due to human activity since the 17th century, hundreds more before then. Human activity threatens about 1,200 bird species with extinction, though efforts are underway to protect them.
Recreational birdwatching is an important part of the ecotourism industry. The first classification of birds was developed by Francis Willughby and John Ray in their 1676 volume Ornithologiae. Carl Linnaeus modified that work in 1758 to devise the taxonomic classification system in use. Birds are categorised as the biological class Aves in Linnaean taxonomy. Phylogenetic taxonomy places Aves in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. Aves and a sister group, the clade Crocodilia, contain the only living representatives of the reptile clade Archosauria. During the late 1990s, Aves was most defined phylogenetically as all descendants of the most recent common ancestor of modern birds and Archaeopteryx lithographica. However, an earlier definition proposed by Jacques Gauthier gained wide currency in the 21st century, is used by many scientists including adherents of the Phylocode system. Gauthier defined Aves to include only the crown group of the set of modern birds; this was done by excluding most groups known only from fossils, assigning them, instead, to the Avialae, in part to avoid the uncertainties about the placement of Archaeopteryx in relation to animals traditionally thought of as theropod dinosaurs.
Gauthier identified four different definitions for the same biological name "Aves", a problem. Gauthier proposed to reserve the term Aves only for the crown group consisting of the last common ancestor of all living birds and all of its descendants, which corresponds to meaning number 4 below, he assigned other names to the other groups. Aves can mean all archosaurs closer to birds than to crocodiles Aves can mean those advanced archosaurs with feathers Aves can mean those feathered dinosaurs that fly Aves can mean the last common ancestor of all the living birds and all of its descendants (a "c
Casuariiformes
The Casuariiformes is an order of large flightless bird that has four surviving members: the three species of cassowary, the only remaining species of emu. They are divided into either a single family, Casuariidae, or more two, with the emu splitting off into its own family, Dromaiidae. All four living members are native to Australia-New Guinea, but some possible extinct taxa occurred in other landmasses; the emus form a distinct family, characterized by legs adapted for running. As with all ratites, there are several contested theories concerning their evolution and relationships; as regards this order, it is interesting whether emus or cassowaries are the more primitive form: the latter are assumed to retain more plesiomorphic features, but this does not need to be true at all. A combination of all these approaches with considerations of plate tectonics at least is necessary for resolving this issue; the total number of cassowary species described, based on minor differences in casque shape and color variations reached nine.
Now, only 3 species are recognized, most authorities only acknowledge few subspecies or none at all. The fossil record of casuariforms is interesting, but not extensive. Regarding fossil species of Dromaius and Casuarius, see their genus pages; some Australian fossils believed to be from emus were recognized to represent a distinct genus, which had a cassowary-like skull and femur and an emu-like lower leg and foot. In addition, the first fossils of mihirungs were believed to be from giant emus, but these birds were unrelated, it has been suggested that the South American genus Diogenornis was a casuraiiform bird, instead of a member of the current South American ratite lineage, the rheas. If this was the case, not only it expanded the fossil range of this lineage spatially, but temporally as well, since Diogenornis occurs in the late Paleocene and is among the earliest known ratites; the Pliocene indian Hypselornis has been linked to emus and cassowaries, but no recent studies have been performed in this obscure taxon.
Casuariiformes Forbes 1884?†Diogenornis - Alvarenga, 1983 †Diogenornis fragilis Alvarenga, 1983 Casuariidae Kaup, 1847?†Hypselornis Lydekker, 1929 †Hypselornis sivalensis Lydekker, 1929 †Emuarius Boles, 1992 †E. gidju Boles, 1992 †E. guljaruba Boles, 2001 Casuarius Brisson, 1760 †C. lydekkeri Rothschild, 1911 C. casuarius Brisson, 1760 C. unappendiculatus Blyth 1860 C. bennetti Gould, 1857 [Casuarius westermanni Sclater, 1874.
Tarsus (skeleton)
The tarsus is a cluster of seven articulating bones in each foot situated between the lower end of tibia and fibula of the lower leg and the metatarsus. It is made up of the hindfoot; the tarsus articulates with the bones of the metatarsus, which in turn articulate with the proximal phalanges of the toes. The joint between the tibia and fibula above and the tarsus below is referred to as the ankle joint. In humans the largest bone in the tarsus is the calcaneus, the weight-bearing bone within the heel of the foot; the talus bone or ankle bone is connected superiorly to the two bones of the lower leg, the tibia and fibula, to form the ankle joint or talocrural joint. Together, the talus and calcaneus form the hindfoot; the five irregular bones of the midfoot—the cuboid and three cuneiform bones—form the arches of the foot which serves as a shock absorber. The midfoot is connected to the hind - and forefoot by the plantar fascia; the complex motion of the subtalar joint occurs in three planes and produces subtalar inversion and eversion.
Along with the transverse tarsal joint, the subtalar joint transforms tibial rotation into forefoot supination and pronation. The axis of rotation in the joint is directed upward 42 degrees from the horizontal plane and 16 degrees medially from the midline of the foot. However, the subtalar facets form a screw or Archimedean spiral, right-handed in the right foot, about which subtalar motion occurs. So, during subtalar inversion, the calcaneus rotates clockwise and translates forward along the axis of the screw. Average subtalar motion is 5-10 degrees eversion. Functional motion during the gait cycle is 10-15 degrees; the talonavicular and calcaneocuboid joints form the so-called transverse tarsal joint or Chopart's joint. It has two axes of motion. Inversion and eversion occur about a longitudinal axis oriented 15 degrees upward from the horizontal plane and 9 degrees medially from the longitudinal axis of the foot. Flexion and extension occur about an oblique axis oriented 52 degrees upward from the horizontal plane and 57 degrees anteromedially.
In vitro talonavicular motion is 17 degrees pronation-supination. The motions of the subtalar and transverse talar joints interact to make the foot either flexible or rigid. With the subtalar joint in eversion, the two joints of the transverse joint are parallel, which make movements in this joint possible. With the subtalar joint in inversion, the axes of the transverse joint are convergent, movements in this joint are thus locked and the midfoot rigid. In primitive tetrapods, such as Trematops, the tarsus consists of three rows of bones. There are three proximal tarsals, the tibiale and fibulare, named for their points of articulation with the bones of the lower limb; these are followed by a second row of four bones, referred to as the centralia, a row of five distal tarsals, each articulating with a single metatarsal. In the great majority of tetrapods, including all of those alive today, this simple pattern is modified by the loss and fusion of some of the bones. In reptiles and mammals, there are just two proximal tarsals, the calcaneus and the talus.
In mammals, including humans, the talus forms a hinge joint with the tibia, a feature well developed in the artiodactyls. The calcaneus is modified, forming a heel for the attachment of the Achilles tendon. Neither of these adaptations is found in reptiles, which have a simple structure to both bones; the fifth distal tarsal disappears early in evolution, with the remainder becoming the cuneiform and cuboid bones. Reptiles retain two centralia, while mammals have only one. In birds, the tarsus has disappeared, with the proximal tarsals having fused with the tibia, the centralia having disappeared, the distal bones having fused with the metatarsals to form a single tarsometatarsus bone giving the leg a third segment. Arches of the foot Carpus Cuboid syndrome Tarsal tunnel Tarsal tunnel syndrome Nordin, Margareta. Basic biomechanics of the musculoskeletal system. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 0-683-30247-7. "Anatomy of the foot and ankle". Podiatry Channel. Retrieved 30 August 2009. Romer, Alfred Sherwood.
The Vertebrate Body. Philadelphia, PA: Holt-Saunders International. Pp. 205–208. ISBN 0-03-910284-X. Diagram, identifying bones xrayslowerlimb at The Anatomy Lesson by Wesley Norman
