Objective To systematically summarize the animal models of acquired heterotopic ossification (AHO), and provide reliable modeling methods for the study of disease prevention and treatment programs.Methods Literatures about the animal models of AHO were researched from PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI and Wanfang Database till November, 2021. The important contents of the literatures were extracted, and the animal models of various types of AHO were evaluated and analyzed by literature induction.Results A total of 20 literatures related to animal experiments were included, which could be divided into two types: post-traumatic and neurogenic heterotopic ossification animal models, which were used to simulate the occurrence and development of AHO. Currently, seven different animal models were commonly used to study post-traumatic heterotopic ossification, such as muscle injury, achilles tenotomy, muscle injury combined with joint immobilization, hip injury, heterotopic implantation, blast injury and burn. The studies of neurogenic heterotopic ossification animal models mainly included spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. At present, the methods of achilles tenotomy and osteogenic factor implantation were commonly used in the laboratory, and with the advantages of reliability, feasibility and high success rate; however, they could not accurately explain the pathogenesis of heterotopic ossification under complicated clinical conditions. Therefore, the improvement of modeling methods based on explosion injury, burn, nerve injury and other conditions became the basis for clinical research of molecular biological mechanism, prevention and treatment of heterotopic ossification.Conclusion Current modeling methods have their own advantages and disadvantages, but none of them can completely replicate all the characteristics of human heterotopic ossification. Therefore, there is no unified standard in the selection of animal model in clinic. According to different etiology of the disease, the selection of appropriate animal models is crucial to study effective intervention for different types of AHO in the early stage.