Ligament · Shoulders

Coracoclavicular ligament

Ligamentum coracoclaviculare

Not one band but two, named for their shapes: the cone-shaped conoid behind and the flat quadrilateral trapezoid in front, both running from the coracoid process of the shoulder blade up to the underside of the collarbone. Between them they suspend the whole shoulder blade — and the arm hanging from it — from the clavicle, which makes them the strongest link in the shoulder girdle even though they do not cross a joint. They also couple the two bones' movement: the shoulder blade cannot swing its socket upward without winding these ligaments, and the clavicle answers by rotating on its own long axis to release them.