Researchers have just identified a new jaw muscle, which has gone completely unnoticed until now.
- The jaws are the two opposable structures (maxilla and mandible) forming the mouth.
- The masseter muscle is used for chewing.
The human body has not yet revealed all its mysteries. As proof: a new muscle has just been discovered by researchers, who describe it for the first time in the journal Annals of Anatomy.
An essential role in chewing
Concretely, the scientists identified a new layer of the lower jaw, located behind the cheekbones. According to their first analyses, it would play an essential role in chewing. “This deep section of the masseter muscle is clearly distinguishable from the other two layers of the jaw in its layout and function,” explains the author of this discovery, Dr. Szilvia Mezey.
To draw these conclusions, his team dissected 12 human heads preserved in formaldehyde and examined CT scans of 16 corpses recently passed into the afterlife. She then analyzed the MRI of a living person, in order to precisely determine the position and function of the new muscle layer.
Improve surgery
Researchers suggest naming it “Musculus masseter pars coronidea”and underline in conclusion that their discovery is not only interesting from an anatomical point of view: a more precise knowledge of the masseter muscle could make it possible to improve curative surgery of the lower jaw.
“Although the anatomical research of the last hundred years is generally considered to have left nothing to chance, our discovery is as staggering as, for example, that of a new species of vertebrate by zoologists”, compares Professor Jens Christoph Türp, co-author of the report published in the journal Annals of Anatomy.
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