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he metatarsophalangeal joint of the great toe differs from that of the lesser toes because it has a sesamoid mechanism and a set of intrinsic muscles that stabilize the joint and provide motor strength to the first ray. The hallucal sesamoids are a consistent entity in humans, originating in the tendons of flexor hallucis brevis. They appear within the seventh or eighth week of embryonic development as islands of undifferentiated connective tissue.
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Mason et al. (2012) studied this question.
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