Teres major at a glance
- What it is
- A thick muscle of the posterior shoulder, sometimes called the lat's little helper.
- Location
- Originates from the dorsal surface of the inferior angle of the scapula and inserts onto the medial lip of the intertubercular groove of the humerus.
- Function
- Adducts, medially rotates and extends the arm.
- Body system
- Muscular · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA32551 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- Innervation: lower subscapular nerve (C5–C6)
- Blood supply: circumflex scapular and thoracodorsal arteries
- It forms the lower border of the quadrangular and triangular spaces, and its lower border defines the end of the axillary artery.
Structures next to the teres major
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Subscapularis · muscular
- Infraspinatus muscle · muscular
- Spinal part of deltoid · muscular
- Scapula · skeletal
- Teres minor · muscular
- Thoracodorsal artery · cardiovascular
- Serratus anterior · muscular
- Coracobrachialis · muscular
- Circumflex scapular artery · cardiovascular
- Dorsal scapular artery · cardiovascular
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Teres major (FMA32551). 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.