Biceps brachii · short head

A different beginning on the same bone

The short head begins at the scapular coracoid process alongside coracobrachialis. It is a head of biceps, not another name for coracobrachialis.

The structure list is useful when nearby surfaces overlap. Gold identifies your selection; it does not mean that two structures with the same highlight belong to one muscle.

Sources: Loyola anatomy

A coracoid origin and a radial destination

The coracoid origin distinguishes this head from the long head’s supraglenoid and labral origin. The distal biceps attachment reaches the radial tuberosity and forearm fascia through its tendon and aponeurosis.

Coracobrachialis instead ends on the humerus. Compare where each mesh goes, not only where it begins.

The scapula and radius are loaded on this page, but the aponeurosis is not. The two biceps meshes are a study segmentation, not a complete depiction of every tendon component.

Sources: Loyola anatomy · Origin study (1994) · Arm anatomy tables

Part of the same elbow flexor and supinator

The short head contributes to the biceps actions of elbow flexion and forearm supination.

The viewer preserves a fixed source pose. Camera rotation does not bend the elbow, turn the radius around the ulna or simulate contraction. A selected head is not a selectively activated head.

“Short” is an anatomical name, not a prediction of weakness or a measure of the selected model’s size on screen. Do not infer separate activation from the isolate control.

Sources: Arm anatomy tables

The same named nerve, a separate study view

Both heads receive musculocutaneous-nerve supply. Branches of the brachial artery supply the muscle.

Nerves and vessels are not loaded in this subset, so the text describes connections you cannot select in the viewer.

Sources: Arm anatomy tables

Read the model

Explore biceps brachii · short head in 3D

1. Inspect the selected head. Use Front and Oblique to compare its surfaces. Keep the full Biceps brachii · short head name in view while changing the camera.
2. Find the scapular context. Choose Show context, select the short head and enable Fade others. Alternate with Scapula; its coracoid process is part of the whole-bone mesh, not a separate hotspot.
3. Compare with coracobrachialis. Select Coracobrachialis, then return to the short head. Inspect their different distal courses and use the selected title or related links to read each guide.
4. Compare both biceps heads. Choose the long head in the list. Its guide explains a different proximal route and the labral anatomy missing from the source subset.

Sources and editorial status

This guide uses independently written explanations with links to the evidence behind them. Source checking and specialist anatomical review are separate steps; the latter is still pending.

1. Loyola University Chicago — LUMEN, Biceps brachii

   Head-specific origins, radial attachment, aponeurosis and muscle actions. No source illustrations reproduced.

2. Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso — Axilla, Posterior Shoulder, & Arm

   Biceps row, humeral groove and aponeurosis entries: attachments, actions, musculocutaneous nerve and brachial arterial supply.

3. Vangsness et al. — The origin of the long head of the biceps from the scapula and glenoid labrum. An anatomical study of 100 shoulders (1994)

   Abstract: cadaveric and histological evidence for superior labral and supraglenoid attachments, with variation in labral distribution. No proportions are generalized to every person.

3D geometry and its separate license are credited beneath the viewer. References do not imply endorsement of this site.