Most Things Biology

The hand bones, or metacarpalsPalm bones numbered thumb (1) to pinky (5); heads form knuckles., are easily seen on the backs of your hands. They lead into each finger, which contains bones called phalangesFinger bones; each finger has three (proximal, intermediate, distal), thumb has two..

An illustration with a white background featuring two skeletal hands. Each hand is palm-up, clearly showing the anatomy of the wrist, palm, and finger bones. They are rendered in beige, with lighter shades at the joints, and represent human hand bones from a dorsal view. — Two skeletal hands, palms up, displaying the bone structure of the wrists, palms, and fingers

Distal phalanx
Intermediate phalanx
Proximal phalanx

Hands and Feet Study Sheets

When we talk about the hands and feet, it’s better to compare these 2 structures. This is similar to how we approach the long bones. The bones of your ankle are called tarsalsSeven ankle bones forming the hindfoot and midfoot. and the bones of your foot are called the metatarsalsLong bones of the foot; numbered big toe (1) to pinky toe (5).. Compare this with the wrist bones called carpalsEight small wrist bones arranged in two rows; allow wrist flexibility. and the bones of your palms called metacarpals. Your toes have bones called phalanges (singular: phalanx). Unfortunately, your the bones of your fingers are also called phalanges.

Let’s take a look at the phalanges of the foot. The thumb and the big toe only have 2 phalanges while all your other digits have 3 phalanges. The big toe has two phalanges. These are the distal phalanxTip bone of each finger; bears the nail. of the first digit and the proximal phalanxClosest to the palm; articulates with metacarpals. of the first digit. Distal and proximalCloser to the point of attachment or origin. are anatomical terms of direction where distal means “far” and proximal means “near.” You need to specify which digit you are talking about when you use the word phalanx or phalanges. The name is shared among all your digits.

Anatomical illustration of the anterior view of foot bones, highlighting the metatarsals and phalanges. The image shows the medial malleolus, talus, metatarsals, proximal phalanx, intermediate phalanx, and distal phalanx of the foot. Text labels with arrows identify specific bones. — Foot bone anatomy showing metatarsals and phalanges.

The other digits of the foot each have 3 phalanges. Just like the first digit, the distal phalanx is at the tip of each toe. The proximal phalanx joins each metatarsal or foot bone. The intermediate phalanxMiddle bone (absent in thumb). is obviously between them. Sometimes students get mixed up and call this the medialToward the midline of the body or median digit. This would be incorrect. Medial and median are words that refer to the middle of your body. The term intermediate is used because it means “in between.” The intermediate phalanx is between the distal and proximal.

We have to stop calling them the thumb and the pinky toe or the big toe. Your digits have numbers. Your big toe is digit number one your pinky toe is digit number 5. Identifying which digit a phalanx belong to is essential when talking about phalanges. Also essential is the designation of left and right. If someone broke the tip of their left big toe, we would describe it as breaking the distal phalanx. It is of the 1st digit on their left foot.