A jaw muscle that arises from cranial mesenchyme and is innervated by cranial nerves.
Comment:
[taxon-note] "It has been hypothesized that Haikouella must have been powered by branchiomeric muscles, as in living craniates, rather than by water moving through the pharynx via ciliary currents, as in lancelets[http://icb.oxfordjournals.org/content/42/4/743.full]"
Synonyms:
exact_synonym:
branchial head muscle; branchiomeric skeletal muscle