Definition of "metatarsus" []

• The middle part of the human foot that forms the instep and includes the five bones between the toes and the ankle. (noun)
• The corresponding part of the hind foot in quadrupeds or of the foot in birds. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "If the proximal end of the metatarsus were broken off (and this bit is the giveaway, as it of course shows the presence of tarsals charactestically mammalian in form and number), I suspect that even some experienced zoologists would be fooled into misidentifying a jerboa metatarsus as an avian one."
• "Feet and toes, the glandular system, the gastro-abdominal system, the lymphatic system, the pituitary gland, the synovial fluids, the tarsus and metatarsus bones, the thalamus, mucus, genes."
• "This is because the size of the foot is an essential characteristic of the species, for no animal has the tarsus and metatarsus combined so small as man; hence the uprightness of his gait: he is a plantigrade."