Short bone

Short bones are designated as those bones that are more or less equal in length, width, and thickness. They include the tarsals in the ankle and the carpals in the wrist. They are one of five types of bones: short, long, flat, irregular and sesamoid. Most short bones are named according to their shape as they exhibit a variety of complex morphological features (They can be cuboid, lenticular, trapezoidal, etc.)

Some authors state that short bones are only located in the carpals and tarsals. The metacarpals, metatarsals and phalanges are considered long bones as they have a shaft (tubular diaphysis), but since they're smaller than typical long bones, they're called “miniature, small or short" long bones. Nevertheless, others consider the patellae and other sesamoid bones, the vertebral bodies, the bones of the skull base and even the phalanges to be short bones.