A U-shaped bone situated between the lower jaw bone (mandible) and the thyroid cartilage. It consists of a a body, two greater cornua and two lesser cornua. It is suspended from the mandible and base of the skull e.g. mylohyoid, geniohyoid, mylohyoid, stylohyoid. Inferior muscle attachments include sternohyoid and omohyoid. The middle constrictor passes round the pharynx to meet in the midline posteriorly with its opposite number. The hyoid bone also provides the main platform from which the muscles of the tongue, the hyoglossus and genioglossus, also arise.