tarsometatarsus love

tarsometatarsus

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A compound bone between the tibia and the toes of a bird's leg, formed by fusion of the tarsal and metatarsal bones.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The single compound bone of some animals, especially birds, resulting from the combination of tarsal and metatarsal bones in one.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Anat.) The large bone next the foot in the leg of a bird. It is formed by the union of the distal part of the tarsus with the metatarsus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The large bone next the foot in the leg of a bird. It is formed by the union of the distal part of the tarsus with the metatarsus.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • We also found an assortment of gull bones, including a nice tarsometatarsus, a cervical vertebra, and a dorsal vertebra, along with what appears to be the synsacrum and incomplete pelvis of a cormorant.

    "While my feet are the trunks and my head is the canopy, high..." greygirlbeast 2009

  • Hoazinoides from the Miocene of Colombia, known from a partial skull, seems to have been very similar to Opisthocomus while Onychopteryx from the Eocene of Argentina is known only from a partial tarsometatarsus and hence is not too informative.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • They all have a strongly hooked bill, a simple, block-like hypotarsus (a site of ligament attachment on the posterior surface of the tarsometatarsus), distinctively proportioned toe bones, and a laterally compressed, strongly curved and sharp-tipped claw on the second toe (discussed previously here).

    Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • A mammalian convergence on the avian tarsometatarsus.

    Archive 2006-03-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • They all have a strongly hooked bill, a simple, block-like hypotarsus (a site of ligament attachment on the posterior surface of the tarsometatarsus), distinctively proportioned toe bones, and a laterally compressed, strongly curved and sharp-tipped claw on the second toe (discussed previously here).

    Giant hoatzins of doom Darren Naish 2006

  • Hoazinoides from the Miocene of Colombia, known from a partial skull, seems to have been very similar to Opisthocomus while Onychopteryx from the Eocene of Argentina is known only from a partial tarsometatarsus and hence is not too informative.

    Goodbye, my giant predatory, cursorial, flightless hoatzin Darren Naish 2006

  • But its markedly slender tarsometatarsus indicates that it was gracile, and thus almost certainly not as heavy as the far more robust giant aepyornithids (aka elephant birds, restricted to Madagascar bar a few dubious reports from continental Africa and elsewhere) and dromornithids (aka mihirungs, an Australian group argued to be giant waterfowl).

    Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • But its markedly slender tarsometatarsus indicates that it was gracile, and thus almost certainly not as heavy as the far more robust giant aepyornithids (aka elephant birds, restricted to Madagascar bar a few dubious reports from continental Africa and elsewhere) and dromornithids (aka mihirungs, an Australian group argued to be giant waterfowl).

    More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006

  • We’re not actually sure what Stigogyps is (though its tarsometatarsus is similar in some details to that of a trumpeter), but its re-evaluation strikes phorusrhacids off the list of European fossil taxa.

    More on phorusrhacids: the biggest, the fastest, the mostest out-of-placest Darren Naish 2006

  • We’re not actually sure what Stigogyps is (though its tarsometatarsus is similar in some details to that of a trumpeter), but its re-evaluation strikes phorusrhacids off the list of European fossil taxa.

    Archive 2006-11-01 Darren Naish 2006

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