triceps surae

The triceps surae is a pair of muscles located at the calf - the gastrocnemius and the soleus. These muscles both insert into the calcaneus, the bone of the heel of the human foot, and form the major part of the muscle of the back part of the lower leg, commonly known as the calf muscle. The triceps surae is connected to the foot through the Achilles tendon, and has 3 heads deriving from the 2 major masses of muscle. The superficial portion (the gastrocnemius) gives off 2 heads attaching to the base of the femur directly above the knee. The deep (profundis) mass of muscle (the soleus) forms the remaining head which attaches to the superior posterior area of the tibia. The triceps surae is innervated by the tibial nerve, specifically, nerve roots L5-S2. [WP,unvetted]. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the triceps surae is

The triceps surae is a pair of muscles located at the calf - the gastrocnemius and the soleus. These muscles both insert into the calcaneus, the bone of the heel of the human foot, and form the major part of the muscle of the back part of the lower leg, commonly known as the calf muscle. The triceps surae is connected to the foot through the Achilles tendon, and has 3 heads deriving from the 2 major masses of muscle. The superficial portion (the gastrocnemius) gives off 2 heads attaching to the base of the femur directly above the knee. The deep (profundis) mass of muscle (the soleus) forms the remaining head which attaches to the superior posterior area of the tibia. The triceps surae is innervated by the tibial nerve, specifically, nerve roots L5-S2. [WP,unvetted]. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the triceps surae is

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

What the triceps surae connects to

The atlas records 9 typed relationships for it, across 6 kinds of connection. part of hindlimb zeugopod.

Supply and innervation

Venous drainage: vein of hindlimb zeugopod. Innervation: tibial nerve.

Also called

Also recorded as calf muscle, gastrosoleus, gastrosoleus complex, musculus triceps surae and sural triceps. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001665, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: hindlimb zeugopod.
• A kind of: hindlimb zeugopod muscle.
• contains: calcaneal tendon, gastrocnemius and soleus muscle.
• inserts into: calcaneal tendon and calcaneus.
• Innervated by: tibial nerve.
• Drained by: vein of hindlimb zeugopod.

Questions

Where is the triceps surae?

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

What does the triceps surae connect to?

Part of: hindlimb zeugopod.

Is the triceps surae 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.