The muscles that move the ears in humans are called the auricular muscles, including the anterior auricular, superior auricular, and posterior auricular muscles. These muscles can move the ear forward, upward, and backward, respectively. They are small muscles attached to the outer ear cartilage. These ear muscles are considered vestigial , meaning they are evolutionary remnants from our distant ancestors. In many animals like dogs and cats, similar muscles are used to perk their ears toward sounds for better hearing. Though most humans have lost the ability to move their ears significantly, some people can still wiggle them voluntarily. The auricular muscles still show some activity when humans focus their attention on sounds, indicating a leftover function for sound direction detection that no longer serves its original prominent purpose. In short, the auricular muscles are vestigial because humans no longer rely on moving ears to localize sound strongly, but these muscles remain as evolutionary leftovers and may still play a subtle role in auditory attention.