Hyoglossus at a glance
- What it is
- A flat extrinsic tongue muscle rising from the hyoid bone.
- Location
- Origin: body and greater horn of the hyoid bone. Insertion: side of the tongue.
- Function
- Depresses the tongue and retracts its sides.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA46704 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: hypoglossal nerve (CN XII)
- The lingual artery passes deep to it, while the hypoglossal nerve, submandibular duct and lingual nerve pass on its superficial surface, an important surgical relation.
- Blood supply: lingual artery
Structures next to the hyoglossus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Genioglossus · muscular
- Mylohyoid · muscular
- Geniohyoid · muscular
- Tongue · digestive
- Sublingual gland · digestive
- Gingiva of lower jaw · digestive
- Submandibular gland · digestive
- Lower first secondary molar tooth · digestive
- Lower second secondary premolar tooth · digestive
- Hyo-epiglottic ligament · respiratory
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Hyoglossus (FMA46704). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §11.2 Naming Skeletal Muscles. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.