Iliacus at a glance
- What it is
- A fan-shaped muscle filling the iliac fossa.
- Location
- Origin: iliac fossa and ala of the sacrum. Insertion: lesser trochanter of the femur, joined by the psoas major tendon (iliopsoas).
- Function
- Flexes the thigh at the hip and stabilizes the hip joint; flexes the trunk when the thigh is fixed.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA22322 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: femoral nerve (L2–L4)
- Blood supply: iliac branch of the iliolumbar artery, with contributions from the deep circumflex iliac, obturator and femoral arteries
Structures next to the iliacus
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Gluteus minimus · muscular
- Hip bone · skeletal
- Gluteus medius · muscular
- Gemellus superior · muscular
- Piriformis · muscular
- Tensor fasciae latae · muscular
- Appendix · digestive
- Obturator internus · muscular
- External iliac artery · cardiovascular
- Lateral circumflex femoral artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Iliacus (FMA22322). 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.