patella
In 4 atlases
Key points
- The patella is a sesamoid bone within the quadriceps tendon at the front of the knee.
- Its broad base faces upwards, while its pointed apex faces downwards towards the patellar ligament.
- The posterior surface articulates with the femur, but the patella does not articulate directly with the tibia.
- The patella increases the mechanical advantage of the quadriceps during knee extension.
Definition
A large sesamoid bone found in the distal femur/proximal tibial region of the hindlimb of tetrapods. The patella is the attachment site for proximal hindlimb tendons.[PHENOSCAPE:ad].
Source: UBERON · Licence: CC-BY-3.0
Definition from the Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall CJ et al., Genome Biology 2012, 13:R5), https://obophenotype.github.io/uberon/, licensed under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
Parts in this atlas
Neighbouring structures
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Identifiers
- TA2
- 1390
- TA98
- A02.5.05.001
- FMA
- 24485
- UBERON
- 0002446
- Wikidata
- Q229081