What do muscles attach to when they don’t attach to bone or cartilage?

I’m thinking particularly of the muscles of the tongue and heart, but also others such as arrector pili and digestive system.

Follow up question.
For people who can’t curl the tip or sides of the tongue up or down, is that because the muscles are missing? Or is there another reason?

Tendon vs. ligament
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/19089.htm

They don’t have to attach to anything. Lots of jobs are done by muscles that just contract to push stuff around the body.

Of course, a lot of animals that use muscles to move around don’t even have a skeleton. What are a slug’s muscles attached to?

dv said:

Of course, a lot of animals that use muscles to move around don’t even have a skeleton. What are a slug’s muscles attached to?

Good point. What are a slug’s muscles attached to?

mollwollfumble said:

dv said:

Of course, a lot of animals that use muscles to move around don’t even have a skeleton. What are a slug’s muscles attached to?

Good point. What are a slug’s muscles attached to?

steady lad…