Navicular bone of foot at a glance
- What it is
- A boat-shaped tarsal bone on the medial side of the foot.
- Location
- Lies between the head of the talus behind and the three cuneiforms in front.
- Function
- Forms part of the medial longitudinal arch, just in front of the talar head (the keystone of the arch), and receives the main tibialis posterior tendon on its tuberosity.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA24501 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Its tuberosity is a palpable medial landmark.
- Its proximal concave surface receives the head of the talus at the talonavicular joint, part of the transverse tarsal joint.
- An accessory navicular bone beside the tuberosity is a common normal variant.
Clinical relevance
Stress fractures occur in athletes.
Structures next to the navicular bone of foot
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Dorsalis pedis artery · cardiovascular
- Intermediate cuneiform bone · skeletal
- Lateral tarsal artery · cardiovascular
- Medial cuneiform bone · skeletal
- Medial plantar artery · cardiovascular
- Lateral cuneiform bone · skeletal
- Cuboid bone · skeletal
- Talus · skeletal
- Plantar arch · cardiovascular
- Long plantar ligament · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Navicular bone of foot (FMA24501). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. 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.