lateral rectus extra-ocular muscle
The lateral rectus muscle is a muscle in the orbit. It is one of six extraocular muscles that control the movements of the eye (abduction in this case) and the only muscle innervated by the abducens nerve, cranial nerve VI. [WP,unvetted]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.
What the lateral rectus extra-ocular muscle is
The lateral rectus muscle is a muscle in the orbit. It is one of six extraocular muscles that control the movements of the eye (abduction in this case) and the only muscle innervated by the abducens nerve, cranial nerve VI. [WP,unvetted]. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.
Where the lateral rectus extra-ocular muscle is
It sits in the head, within the muscular and sensory systems. 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 rectus extra-ocular muscle connects to
The atlas records 3 typed relationships for it, across 3 kinds of connection. a kind of rectus extraocular muscle.
Supply and innervation
Innervation: abducens nerve.
Also called
Also recorded as M. rectus lateralis, lateral rectus, lateral rectus extraocular muscle, lateral rectus muscle, musculus rectus lateralis and posterior rectus, and 3 more. Searching any of those names reaches this page.
Source
Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001603, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.
- A kind of: rectus extraocular muscle.
- Innervated by: abducens nerve.
- inserts into: inferior oblique extraocular muscle.
Questions
Where is the lateral rectus extra-ocular muscle?
It sits in the head, within the muscular and sensory systems. 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 rectus extra-ocular muscle connect to?
A kind of: rectus extraocular muscle.
Is the lateral rectus extra-ocular 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.