Rectus capitis posterior minor at a glance
- What it is
- A small suboccipital muscle lying medial to rectus capitis posterior major.
- Location
- Originates from the posterior tubercle of the atlas and inserts onto the medial part of the inferior nuchal line of the occipital bone.
- Function
- Extends the head at the atlanto-occipital joint.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA32533 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: suboccipital nerve (dorsal ramus of C1)
- Has a connective tissue link (myodural bridge) to the spinal dura mater
Structures next to the rectus capitis posterior minor
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Rectus capitis posterior major · muscular
- Obliquus capitis superior · muscular
- Central canal of spinal cord · nervous
- Posterior inferior cerebellar artery · cardiovascular
- Atlas · skeletal
- Obliquus capitis inferior · muscular
- Cerebellum · nervous
- Anterior spinal artery · cardiovascular
- Medulla oblongata · nervous
- Axis · skeletal
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Rectus capitis posterior minor (FMA32533). 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.