page_title: Arthropod leg
section_title: Myriapoda
hierarchical_section_title: Arthropod leg / Myriapoda
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch&#58; Spinnenläufer. Dorsale Ansicht eines lebenden Exemplars. Größe, Körper, Beine und Fühler aus: 3,5 cm.English&#58; House centipede. Dorsal view of a living specimen. Size, body, legs and antennae excluding: 3.5 cm.Français&#58; Scutigère véloce. Vue dorsale d'un spécimen vivant. Taille, du corps, hors antennes et pattes&#160;: 3,5 cm.
context_page_description: The arthropod leg is a form of jointed appendage of arthropods, usually used for walking. Many of the terms used for arthropod leg segments are of Latin origin, and may be confused with terms for bones: coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, tarsus, ischium, metatarsus, carpus, dactylus, patella.
  Homologies of leg segments between groups are difficult to prove and are the source of much argument. Some authors posit up to eleven segments per leg for the most recent common ancestor of extant arthropods but modern arthropods have eight or fewer. It has been argued that the ancestral leg need not have been so complex, and that other events, such as successive loss of function of a Hox-gene, could result in parallel gains of leg segments.
  In arthropods, each of the leg segments articulates with the next segment in a hinge joint and may only bend in one plane. This means that a greater number of segments is required to achieve the same kinds of movements that are possible in vertebrate animals, which have rotational ball-and-socket joints at the base of the fore and hind limbs.
context_section_description: Myriapods (millipedes, centipedes and their relatives) have seven-segmented walking legs, comprising coxa, trochanter, prefemur, femur, tibia, tarsus, and a tarsal claw. Myriapod legs show a variety of modifications in different groups. In all centipedes, the first pair of legs is modified into a pair of venomous fangs called forcipules. In most millipedes, one or two pairs of walking legs in adult males are modified into sperm-transferring structures called gonopods. In some millipedes, the first leg pair in males may be reduced to tiny hooks or stubs, while in others the first pair may be enlarged.
caption: Seven-segmented legs of Scutigera coleoptrata.
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