Yes, tarsals are short bones.
Understanding Short Bones and Tarsals
Short bones are roughly cube-shaped bones, with their length, width, and height being approximately equal. They are designed for stability and support rather than large-range movement. Examples include the carpal bones in the wrists and, importantly for this question, the tarsal bones in the ankles.
Tarsal bones are the seven bones that form the ankle and hindfoot. These include the calcaneus (heel bone), talus, navicular, cuboid, and three cuneiform bones (medial, intermediate, and lateral). Several sources explicitly classify tarsal bones as short bones. Their structure reflects this classification, exhibiting a near-equal distribution of length, width, and height. This shape contributes to the stability required for weight-bearing and locomotion.
- Key sources confirming tarsals as short bones:
- Multiple anatomy textbooks and online resources explicitly state that tarsals are short bones (e.g., Visible Body, TeachMeAnatomy, Complete Anatomy).
- MedlinePlus and Wikipedia entries on short bones also explicitly include the tarsals as examples (MedlinePlus, Wikipedia).
Therefore, the answer to the question is definitive: Yes, tarsals are classified as short bones due to their nearly equal dimensions in length, width, and height.
