page_title: Tibia
section_title: Development
hierarchical_section_title: Tibia / Structure / Development
caption_attribution_description: Epiphysial lines of tibia and fibula in a young adult. Anterior aspect.
context_page_description: The tibia, also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates, and it connects the knee with the ankle bones. The tibia is found on the medial side of the leg next to the fibula and closer to the median plane or centre-line. The tibia is connected to the fibula by the interosseous membrane of the leg, forming a type of fibrous joint called a syndesmosis with very little movement. The tibia is named for the flute tibia. It is the second largest bone in the human body next to the femur. The leg bones are the strongest long bones as they support the rest of the body.
context_section_description: The tibia is ossified from three centers; a primary center for the diaphysis (shaft) and a secondary center for each epiphysis (extremity). Ossification begins in the center of the body, about the seventh week of fetal life, and gradually extends toward the extremities.
  The center for the upper epiphysis appears before or shortly after birth at close to 34 weeks gestation; it is flattened in form, and has a thin tongue-shaped process in front, which forms the tuberosity; that for the lower epiphysis appears in the second year.
  The lower epiphysis fuses with the tibial shaft at about the eighteenth, and the upper one fuses about the twentieth year.
  Two additional centers occasionally exist, one for the tongue-shaped process of the upper epiphysis, which forms the tuberosity, and one for the medial malleolus.
caption: Epiphysial lines of tibia and fibula in a young adult. Anterior aspect.
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