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Talus: anatomy, location and function

A tarsal bone that sits between the tibia and fibula above and the calcaneus below. Transfers body weight from the leg to the foot and forms the ankle joint.

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Structures

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Highlighted in the model: Talus. Click any part to read about it, or switch off “Highlight topic” to see the whole body. 3D data: BodyParts3D, © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0; meshes simplified and recoloured. The model is an adult male.

Talus at a glance

Also called
Ankle bone
What it is
A tarsal bone that sits between the tibia and fibula above and the calcaneus below.
Location
Lies at the top of the foot, articulating with the tibia, fibula, calcaneus and navicular.
Function
Transfers body weight from the leg to the foot and forms the ankle joint.
Body system
Skeletal · paired (left and right)
FMA ID
FMA24483 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)

Key facts

  • No muscles attach to it.
  • Its blood supply enters mainly through the neck and is fragile.
  • Its trochlea, gripped by the medial and lateral malleoli, is wider in front, so the ankle is most stable in dorsiflexion.

Clinical relevance

Fractures of the neck can cause avascular necrosis of the body.

Structures next to the talus

The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:

References

  1. Foundational Model of Anatomy: Talus (FMA24483). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
  2. OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
  3. 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.