Longissimus capitis at a glance
- What it is
- The part of longissimus attaching to the skull.
- Location
- Origin: transverse processes of upper thoracic vertebrae and articular processes of lower cervical vertebrae. Insertion: posterior margin of the mastoid process.
- Function
- Extends the head and neck and rotates the face to the same side.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA22754 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: posterior rami of middle and lower cervical nerves
- It lies deep to splenius capitis and is the only part of erector spinae that reaches the skull besides the small spinalis capitis.
- Longissimus is the intermediate column of erector spinae.
Structures next to the longissimus capitis
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Descending part of trapezius · muscular
- Cervical rotator · muscular
- Semispinalis capitis · muscular
- Scalenus medius · muscular
- Deep cervical artery · cardiovascular
- Levator scapulae · muscular
- Splenius capitis · muscular
- Obliquus capitis inferior · muscular
- Fourth cervical vertebra · skeletal
- Fifth cervical vertebra · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Longissimus capitis (FMA22754). 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.