Muscle · Head

Hyoglossus

Musculus hyoglossus

A thin flat quadrangle rising almost vertically from the hyoid bone — the free-floating U of bone in the throat — into the side of the tongue. It pulls the side of the tongue down, flattening its upper surface and drawing the whole tongue backward, which is the counterpart of the muscle that sticks the tongue out. Its surgical importance is out of proportion to its size: the lingual artery runs deep to it and the hypoglossal nerve and lingual nerve run on its outer surface, so this small sheet is the landmark that separates them.