Chewing muscles

We just learned about the Nose Muscles.

There's a fancy word for chewing, it's called masticating.

You have two main muscles you use for chewing.
One is your jaw muscle called the masseter muscle.


(from: wikipedia - masseter muscle)

The other is your temple muscle up on the side of your head, called the temporal muscle.


(from: wikipedia - temporal muscle)


If you bite down hard and feel your face and the side of your head, you can feel which muscles they are.

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tibia & Fibula

Nose muscles

We just learned about the Ear Muscles.

There are two main muscles that you can use for your nose.

When you flare your nostrils, that means your nostrils are open more.
The muscle you use to flare your nostrils is your nasalis muscle.


(from: wikipedia - nasalis muscle)

The other nose muscle helps you raise your nose up like a snarl.
It is called the levator labii superioris alaeque nasi muscle, and it is the longest muscle name of any animal.


(from: wikipedia - levator labii superioris alaeque nasi muscle)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Patella

Ear muscles

We just learned about Eyelid Muscles.

Can you wiggle your ears?

We all have ear muscles, but not everyone uses them.
There are two different ear muscles.

One is the auricular.
Auris means ear, and cula means little.

(from: wikipedia - auricular muscles)

The other is the temporoparietalis.
tempus means time and paries means wall.

(from: wikipedia - temporoparietalis muscles)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Femur

Eyelid muscles

We just learned about the Eyebrow Muscles.

Your eyelids have two muscles, one to open them and one to close them.

The one that closes your eyelids is called the orbicularis oculi.
orbicularis means little circle, and oculi means your eye.


(from: wikipedia - orbicularis oculi muscle)

The one that opens your eyelids is the levator palpebrae superioris.
levator means lifter, palpebrae means eyelid, and superioris means above.

(#9 in the picture)

(from: wikipedia - levator palpebrae superioris muscle)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pelvis, hip bone

Eyebrow muscles

We just learned about the Cheek Muscles.

There are two muscles that help you raise and lower your eyebrows.

The occipitofrontalis muscle raises your eyebrows like a surprised look.

The corrugator supercilii muscle lowers your eyebrows like a frown.


(from: wikipedia - occipitofrontalis muscle)


(from: wikipedia - corrugator supercilii muscle)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Coccyx bone

Cheek muscles

We just learned about the Depressor Lip Muscles.

There are three muscles in your cheek area that help you do things like smile and whistle:

Orbicularis oris, risorius, and buccinator.


(from: wikipedia - Orbicularis oris muscle)


(from: wikipedia - risorius)


(from: wikipedia - buccinator muscle)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sacrum

Depressor lip muscles

We learned that the muscles for the upper lip are the levator muscles.

There are three muscles in your face on the front of your chin that help push up your bottom lip:
depressor anguli oris, depressor labii inferioris, mentalis.


(from: wikipedia - depressor anguli oris)


(from: wikipedia - depressor labii inferioris)


(from: wikipedia - mentalis)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Distal Phalanges

Levator Lip Muscles

We just learned about the Procerus Nose Muscle.

There are two muscles in your face that help raise your upper lip:
levator labii superioris and levator anguli oris.

The superioris muscle is the bigger one.

levator means to raise, labii means lip, superioris means upper or bigger, anguli means angled and oris means mouth.


(from: wikipedia - levator labii superioris)


(from: wikipedia - levator anguli oris)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Intermediate Phalanges

Procerus nose muscle

We just learned about the Tongue muscle.

There is a muscle on your nose, that helps you wrinkle up your nose like when you are sniffing like a bunny.
That muscle is called your procerus muscle.

(from: wikipedia - procerus muscle)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Proximal Phalanges

Tongue

We just learned about the Plantar Foot Muscles.

Your tongue is also a muscle!

There are eight different muscles in your tongue, with big long names:
genioglossus, hyoglossus, styloglossus, palatoglossus, superior longitudinal, inferior longitudinal, verticalis and transversus.

Your tongue is the most flexible parts of your body, all because of so many muscles.

You can move your tongue up, down, left and right. Stick it out or pull it in.
Some people can curl it back on top or bottom, fold it in half, turn it sideways, or even make it round or flat!

It's such an important muscle that we use every day!

(from: wikipedia - tongue)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hand Bones - Metacarpals

Plantar foot muscles

We just learned about the dorsal foot muscles, that are mostly responsible for lifting your toes up.

The foot muscles you use for scrunching your toes down are called the plantar foot muscles.
There are ten of them, with really big long names!

The big one that moves your big toe is called the abductor hallucis.


(from: wikipedia - abductor hallucis)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Wrist bones - carpals

Dorsal Foot Muscles

We just learned about the Palmar Interossei Hand Muscles.

There are a lot of muscles in the foot, just to help you walk and keep your balance!

The first group of foot muscles we'll talk about are the dorsal foot muscles.

They have really fancy names extensor digitorum brevis and extensor hallucis brevis,
but you can just call them dorsal muscles.

They are used to help you straighten your toes, or lift them up toward your face.

(from: wikipedia - extensor digitorum brevis muscle)


(from: wikipedia - extensor hallucis brevis muscle)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Radius & Ulna

Palmar interossei hand muscles

We just learned abou the Dorsal Interossei hand muscles.

The palmar interossei muscles in your hand are the muscles in between the metacarpal finger bones that are part of your hand.

They are used to squeeze your fingers together.

(from: wikipedia - palmar interossei)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Humerus

Dorsal interossei hand muscles

We just learned a little about the Lumbrical Hand Muscles.

The dorsal interossei muscles in your hand are the muscles in between the metacarpal finger bones that are part of your hand.

They are used to spread your fingers apart.

(from: wikipedia - dorsal interossei)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: False Ribs

Lumbrical hand muscles

The lumbrical muscles in your hand are the muscles in between the metacarpal finger bones that are part of your hand.

They help you stick your fingers straight out.


(from: wikipedia - lumbricals of the hand)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pectoral Girdle

Hypothenar

We just learned about the thenar muscle in the hand by the thumb.

The other big muscle in your hand that you can feel is called the hypothenar.
It's over on the side of your hand by your pinky, and it controls all the movement of your pinky finger.


(from: wikipedia - hypothenar)



Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Clavicle and Scapula

Hand muscles - Thenar

Just like the wrist muscles, there are many muscles in your hand that do different things.

Let's start with the thenar muscle.

The big muscle that's part of your thumb is called the thenar.

It's responsible for all the movements of your thumb!

(from: wikipedia - thenar eminence)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Esophagus

Forearm supinators

Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

We've now learned that the forearm flexors are used to help flex your elbow together,
the forearm extensors are used to move the back of your hand toward your forearm, or spread your fingers out.
and the forearm pronators are to turn your wrist so your hand is facing away from you.

The last of the four forearm muscles we're going to learn about is the supinator muscles.

The opposite of the pronator, the supinator is when you turn your wrist to move the palm of your hand to be toward your face.
(from: wikipedia - pronation)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lumbar Vertebrae

Forearm pronators

Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

We've now learned that the forearm flexors are used to help flex your elbow together,
and the forearm extensors are used to move the bank of your hand toward your forearm, or spread your fingers out.

The forearm does even more than that!

There is another group of muscles called pronators.
They spin your wrist around, so that your hand is pointing away from you.


(from: wikipedia - pronation)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Thoracic Vertebrae

Forearm Extensors

Let's keep learning about the muscles in the human body!

Last time we learned about how the Forearm flexors are used to help flex your elbow together.

Even though the forearm muscles are smaller than biceps, there are a few other important muscles there too.

The extensor muscles are the ones you use when you move the back of your hand up toward your forearm,
or when you open up your hand and spread out your fingers.


(from: wikipedia - extrinsic extensor muscles of the hand)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cervical Vertebrae