Malaris muscle

The malar muscle (M. malaris) used to be called 'lacrymal' by the french veterinarians. It is not very distinct in Men, where it is probably represented by the 'orbital part' of the cutaneous muscle of the neck. It is rudimentary in Pigs, but well developed in Carnivorous, Rabbits, Equidae, and even particularly extended in Ruminants.

Conformation: it is a thin and light muscular extension with parallel beams, more or less vertical, spread beneath the eye, on the surface of the zygomatic and maxillar bones. Its rostral border tends to unite to the caudal border of the nasolabial levator mucle.

Insertions: deep surface of the inferior segment of the orbicular muscle of the eye, as well as the zygomatic bone and the adjacent part of the lacrymal bone. Ventrally, it mixes its fibers to the ones of the platysma and spreads into a fibrous extension to the surface of the buccinator muscle.

Relations: partly covered  by the platysma of the face, orbicular of the eye, or (Ruminants) zygomatic muscle, then by the skin, this muscle covers the zygomatic, the lacrymal and the maxillar bones, and, partly, the levator labii superioris, buccinator and sometimes masseter.

Functions: it frowns the skin of the infrapalpebral region and contributes to move the one of the cheek.

Vessels and nerves: the blood comes from the angular arteries of the eye (Horses), infra-orbital (Bulls) or from the endings of the transverse artery of the face (Carnivorous). The motricity is brought by the dorsal buccal branch of the facial nerve.