Calcaneal tendon at a glance
- Also called
- Achilles tendon
- What it is
- The thick tendon joining gastrocnemius and soleus to the heel bone.
- Location
- Attaches to the middle part of the posterior surface of the calcaneus.
- Function
- Transmits calf muscle force to plantarflex the ankle in walking, running and jumping.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA258847 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Also called the Achilles tendon
- It is the thickest and strongest tendon in the body
Clinical relevance
Rupture is common in middle-aged athletes and causes loss of plantarflexion strength.
Structures next to the calcaneal tendon
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Fibularis brevis · muscular
- Fibularis tertius · muscular
- Posterior tibial vein · cardiovascular
- Talus · skeletal
- Posterior tibial artery · cardiovascular
- Lateral tarsal artery · cardiovascular
- Calcaneus · skeletal
- Navicular bone of foot · skeletal
- Dorsalis pedis artery · cardiovascular
- Flexor hallucis longus · muscular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Calcaneal tendon (FMA258847). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.