28 May Comparative Anatomy of Legs and Feet in other Animals
By Joel Bell. Podiatrist, Masterton Foot Clinic.
I was at Te Papa the other week and came across the section where they keep skeletons of all the different animals. Being a podiatrist, I found it fascinating that all the bones from the hip down in mammals were almost identical to the people I treat. If you look at cats, dogs, and horses it looks like their knee bone is pointing backwards. That bone pointing backwards is actually the calcaneus or heel bone! All these animals are actually walking on their toes!
In the picture above you can see a human leg on the left, a dog in the middle, and a horse on the right. We all the share the same thigh bone structure with a knee cap facing forward and a tibia and fibula which is our shin bone.
Above is a cat’s foot. It looks like it has hammer toes! You can see the big toe/thumb doesn’t touch the ground here.
The sea mammals had similar bone structures too. The seal above has a very short femur or thigh bone and long spread out phalanges (toes) to give more propulsion in the water.
Above is a whale’s skeleton. It has tiny legs and feet that aren’t used as flippers unlike the seal.