Muscle · Head

Auricularis superior

Musculus auricularis superior

The largest of the three ear muscles: a thin fan spread over the side of the head above the ear, converging downward into a flat tendon that grips the top of the ear cartilage. It lifts the ear. Like the anterior muscle it has no bony attachment at its upper end — it hangs from the same tendon sheet that covers the skull, so contracting it tugs the scalp as much as the ear. It sits in the thin superficial layer over the temple, between the skin and the temporal fascia, which is the same plane its two companions occupy.