trapezius muscle

A large superficial muscle that extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae and laterally to the spine of the scapula (shoulder blade). Its functions are to move the scapulae and support the arm. The trapezius has three functional regions: the superior region (descending part), which supports the weight of the arm; the intermediate region (transverse part), which retracts the scapulae; and the inferior region (ascending part), which medially rotates and depresses the scapulae. [WP,unvetted]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the trapezius muscle is

A large superficial muscle that extends longitudinally from the occipital bone to the lower thoracic vertebrae and laterally to the spine of the scapula (shoulder blade). Its functions are to move the scapulae and support the arm. The trapezius has three functional regions: the superior region (descending part), which supports the weight of the arm; the intermediate region (transverse part), which retracts the scapulae; and the inferior region (ascending part), which medially rotates and depresses the scapulae. [WP,unvetted]. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the trapezius muscle is

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

What the trapezius muscle connects to

The atlas records 10 typed relationships for it, across 6 kinds of connection. a kind of anatomical structure and muscle of shoulder.

Supply and innervation

Venous drainage: transverse cervical vein.

Also called

Also recorded as trapezius, musculus trapezius and spinotrapezius. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0002380, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• A kind of: anatomical structure and muscle of shoulder.
• antagonist of: latissimus dorsi muscle and serratus ventralis.
• inserts into: acromion and lateral border of scapula.
• originates from: neural spine and nuchal ligament.
• contains: skeletal muscle tissue of trapezius.
• Drained by: transverse cervical vein.

Questions

Where is the trapezius muscle?

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

What does the trapezius muscle connect to?

A kind of: anatomical structure and muscle of shoulder.

Is the trapezius 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.