26 bones of the foot
Each foot has 26 bones: 7 tarsals, 5 metatarsals and 14 phalanges. The talus sits on top, under the tibia and fibula, and passes the body's weight down and forward. No muscle attaches to it. Below and behind it lies the calcaneus, the heel bone, the largest bone of the foot.
The bones of the right foot from above, Gray's Anatomy, 1918, figure 268Wikimedia Commons, Henry Vandyke Carter, Public domain (Gray268.png)
In front of them lie the navicular, the cuboid and three cuneiforms, the other tarsals. The five metatarsals make up the front of the foot, and their heads take the weight at the ball of the foot. The phalanges of the toes match those of the fingers, two in the big toe and three in each of the others.
The two hands and the two feet together hold 106 bones, more than half of the 206.
The bones of the right foot from below, Gray's Anatomy, 1918, figure 269Wikimedia Commons, Henry Vandyke Carter, Public domain (Gray269.png)
Sources
- Susan Standring (ed.), Gray's Anatomy, 42nd ed. (2020), chapter on the ankle and foot.
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