lateral pterygoid muscle

Pharyngeal arch 1 muscle that participates in oral/pharyngeal behaviors, is innervated by the lateral pterygoid nerve branches, and attaches to the condylar process of the mandible and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) capsule, and the cranial base. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the lateral pterygoid muscle is

Pharyngeal arch 1 muscle that participates in oral/pharyngeal behaviors, is innervated by the lateral pterygoid nerve branches, and attaches to the condylar process of the mandible and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) capsule, and the cranial base. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the lateral pterygoid muscle is

It sits in the head, within the muscular system. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.

What the lateral pterygoid muscle connects to

The atlas records 7 typed relationships for it, across 5 kinds of connection. a kind of masticatory muscle.

Supply and innervation

Innervation: lateral pterygoid nerve and mandibular nerve.

Also called

Also recorded as pterygoid lateralis, external pterygoid muscle, lateral pteregoid, lateral pteregoid muscle, lateral pterygoid and m. pterygoideus externus, and 8 more. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0006719, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• A kind of: masticatory muscle.
• Attaches to: basicranium and mandible condylar process.
• Innervated by: lateral pterygoid nerve and mandibular nerve.
• inserts into: mandible condylar process.
• originates from: sphenoid bone pterygoid process.

Questions

Where is the lateral pterygoid muscle?

It sits in the head, within the muscular system. Not positioned individually, and containment is not asserted either. Drawn near structures of the same kind, which is a weak claim about location.

What does the lateral pterygoid muscle connect to?

A kind of: masticatory muscle.

Is the lateral pterygoid muscle 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.