Which is the smallest muscle in the human body?
The human body has about 650 muscles—we say “about” because there is some disagreement as to which muscles are separate and that results in different muscle totals. The stapedius is the smallest skeletal muscle in the human body. At just over one millimeter in length, its purpose is to stabilize the smallest bone in the body, the stapes. The stapedius emerges from a pinpoint foramen in the apex of the pyramidal eminence (a hollow, cone-shaped prominence in the posterior wall of the tympanic cavity), and inserts into the neck of the stapes. Although the experts don’t agree on how many muscles there are in the human body, they do agree that the smallest muscle is the stapedius. Located in the middle ear, the stapedius is a mere 1.27 millimeters long. And what does such a minuscule muscle do? It controls the tiniest bone in the body, the stapes or stirrup bone. The stapes and two other bones conduct sound vibrations through the middle ear. It prevents excess movement by the stapes, helpin
