common iliac artery

The common iliac arteries are two large arteries, about 4cm long in adults but more than a centimetre in diameter, that originate from the aortic bifurcation. The arteries run inferolaterally, along the medial border of the psoas muscles to the pelvic brim, where they bifurcate into the external iliac artery and internal iliac artery. The common iliac artery, and all of its branches, exist as paired structures (that is to say, there is one on the left side and one on the right). The distribution of the common iliac artery is basically the pelvis and lower limb on the corresponding side. Both common iliac arteries are accompanied along their course by common iliac veins. [WP,unvetted]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the common iliac artery is

The common iliac arteries are two large arteries, about 4cm long in adults but more than a centimetre in diameter, that originate from the aortic bifurcation. The arteries run inferolaterally, along the medial border of the psoas muscles to the pelvic brim, where they bifurcate into the external iliac artery and internal iliac artery. The common iliac artery, and all of its branches, exist as paired structures (that is to say, there is one on the left side and one on the right). The distribution of the common iliac artery is basically the pelvis and lower limb on the corresponding side. Both common iliac arteries are accompanied along their course by common iliac veins. [WP,unvetted]. The atlas records it as a artery at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the common iliac artery is

It sits within the cardiovascular system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What the common iliac artery connects to

The atlas records 8 typed relationships for it, across 5 kinds of connection. part of abdominal aorta and pelvic complex.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the common iliac artery. Only a minority of structures carry those edges here, so an empty answer means nothing has been recorded — not that there is nothing to record.

Also called

Also recorded as common iliac arterial tree and arteria iliaca communis. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001191, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: abdominal aorta and pelvic complex.
• A kind of: systemic artery.
• contains: external iliac artery and internal iliac artery.
• subtype: left common iliac artery and right common iliac artery.
• branching part of: abdominal aorta.

Questions

Where is the common iliac artery?

It sits within the cardiovascular system. Positioned deliberately as part of this species body plan.

What does the common iliac artery connect to?

Part of: abdominal aorta and pelvic complex.

Is the common iliac artery the same in other species?

Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.