Do birds have knees? Why do they look like they are on backwards? Ben Garrod explains <\/p>
Yes birds do have knees but they are not where you would expect them. <\/strong><\/p> A few facts circulate within zoology that are simply not true. One of the worst offenders is that birds\u2019 knees are on backwards. <\/p> Admittedly there does seem to be a joint where you\u2019d expect to see the knee, and it does appear to bend in the opposite direction. However, what you\u2019re actually seeing is the ankle joint, which is very high up on the leg.<\/p> Birds have relatively short femurs (thigh bones), and the knees are actually tucked right up against the body, nestled among the wings and feathers.<\/p> What is sometimes mistakenly thought of as the typical lower leg bones (the tibia and fibula) is the tarsometatarsus, a single fusion of ankle and foot bones found only in birds and certain dinosaurs. <\/p> Birds are true digitigrades, meaning that they walk with only their toes on the ground. The rest of the foot just happens to extend up the leg, giving rise to the claims of backwards knees. <\/p> Discover more fascinating bird facts<\/strong><\/p> Do birds have knees? Why do they look like they are on backwards? Ben Garrod explains <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":33038,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/10\/do-birds-have-knees-why-do-they-look-weird-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Do birds have knees? Why do they look like they are on backwards? Ben Garrod explains","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/33037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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