vastus intermedius

The Vastus intermedius (Cruraeus) arises from the front and lateral surfaces of the body of the femur in its upper two-thirds, sitting under Rectus Femoris and from the lower part of the lateral intermuscular septum. Its fibers end in a superficial aponeurosis, which forms the deep part of the Quadriceps femoris tendon. The Vastus medialis and Vastus intermedius appear to be inseparably united, but when the Rectus femoris has been reflected a narrow interval will be observed extending upward from the medial border of the patella between the two muscles, and the separation may be continued as far as the lower part of the intertrochanteric line, where, however, the two muscles are frequently continuous. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the vastus intermedius is

The Vastus intermedius (Cruraeus) arises from the front and lateral surfaces of the body of the femur in its upper two-thirds, sitting under Rectus Femoris and from the lower part of the lateral intermuscular septum. Its fibers end in a superficial aponeurosis, which forms the deep part of the Quadriceps femoris tendon. The Vastus medialis and Vastus intermedius appear to be inseparably united, but when the Rectus femoris has been reflected a narrow interval will be observed extending upward from the medial border of the patella between the two muscles, and the separation may be continued as far as the lower part of the intertrochanteric line, where, however, the two muscles are frequently continuous. The atlas records it as a muscle at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the vastus intermedius is

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

What the vastus intermedius connects to

The atlas records 4 typed relationships for it, across 4 kinds of connection. part of quadriceps femoris.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the vastus intermedius. 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 cruraeus, crureus, intermediate great muscle, intermediate vastus muscle, musculus vastus intermedius and vastus intermedialis, and 1 more. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0014847, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

Questions

Where is the vastus intermedius?

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

What does the vastus intermedius connect to?

Part of: quadriceps femoris.

Is the vastus intermedius 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.