Skull
Description
Other Names
- Skull
- Cranium
- Calvarium
- Neurocranium
- Face
Description
- Bones of the skull
- Enclose and protect the brain, meninges and cerebral vasculature
- Supports the face
- Can be divided into cranium (cranial roof and base) and those of the face
Cranium
- Also known as the neurocranium
- Formed by anterior aspect of the skull
- Enclose and protect the brain, meninges and cerebral vasculature
- Cranial roof
- Bones: frontal, occipital, two parietal bones
- Also known as the calvarium
- Cranial base
- Bones: frontal, sphenoid, ethmoid, occipital, parietal, and temporal bones
- Articulate with 1st cervical vertebra (atlas), the facial bones, and the mandible (jaw)
Face
- Also known as the viscerocranium
- Supports the soft tissue of the face
- 14 bones house the orbits, nasal and oral cavities, sinus
- Facial bones
- Zygomatic (2)
- Lacrimal (2)
- Nasal (2)
- Inferior nasal conchae (2)
- Palatine (2)
- Maxilla (2)
- Mandible (jaw)
Sutures of the Skull
- Suture: fibrous joint unique to the skull
- Immovable and fuse around age 20
- Represent potential weak points in the skuill
- Main sutures
- Coronal suture (fuses the frontal bone with the two parietal bones)
- Sagittal suture (fuses both parietal bones to each other)
- Lambdoid suture (fuses the occipital bone to the two parietal bones)
- Neonatal sutures
- Incompletely fused, creates a membranous gap known as fontanelle
- Frontal fontanelle (located at the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures)
- Occipital fontanelle (located at the junction of the sagittal and lambdoid sutures)
Clinical Significance
See Also
References
- ↑ Image courtesy of https://www.britannica.com/science/skull
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Image courtesy of https://radiologykey.com/
- ↑ Image courtesy of http://www.wikiradiography.net/