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The interactive dog atlas · Skeleton · Head

Hyoid apparatus apparatus hyoideus

The hyoid apparatus is a small skeleton of tiny bones, hidden between the jaws, from which the tongue and the larynx hang.

Open in the interactive atlas Guide: Skeleton Worksheet

Educational material, not a diagnostic tool. Written by the Mantrailing România team from veterinary sources we read. Updated 14.11.2026.

Dog in left lateral view — exterior, muscles, skeleton and organs Vector study after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates: a standing dog, head to the left, deep chest and digitigrade limbs. The four layers use the same contour: exterior with body regions, superficial muscles, skeleton and organs.
  1. Hyoid apparatus
  2. Mandible
  3. Temporal bone
Hyoid apparatus on the atlas drawing, "Skeleton" layer, with the neighbouring structures. Left lateral view, after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates.

Where it is

Between the rami of the mandible, attached above to the temporal bone, below to the larynx.

System
Axial skeleton
Region
Head

What it is and what it does

The hyoid apparatus is a chain of small bones that supports the tongue and the larynx, set in the back of the space between the bodies of the mandible; it attaches dorsally to the styloid processes of the temporal bones, ventrally to the larynx and the root of the tongue. Its pieces: basihyoid, thyrohyoid, ceratohyoid, epihyoid and stylohyoid; in the dog the stylohyoid is slightly longer than the epihyoid. The muscles of the tongue and neck attach to it.

Worth remembering

It can't be seen from outside, but without it the tongue and the larynx would have nothing to attach to.

Names

  • Latin term: apparatus hyoideus.
  • In Romanian: Aparatul hioid (Romanian page).

Guides it appears in

From the same region: Head

All structures, in the atlas · Flashcards: skeleton