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The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of three types of bone: cranial bones, facial bones, and ear ossicles. Two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, these two parts are the neurocranium (braincase) and the viscerocranium that includes the mandible as its largest bone. The skull forms the anterior-most portion of the skeleton and is a product of cephalisation—housing the brain, and several sensory structures such as the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. In humans, these sensory structures are part of the facial skeleton.
A fontanelle is an anatomical feature of the infant human skull comprising soft membranous gaps (sutures) between the cranial bones that make up the calvaria of a fetus or an infant. Fontanelles allow for stretching and deformation of the neurocranium both during birth and later as the brain expands faster than the surrounding bone can grow. Premature complete ossification of the sutures is called craniosynostosis.
The sphenoid bone is an unpaired bone of the neurocranium. It is situated in the middle of the skull towards the front, in front of the basilar part of the occipital bone. The sphenoid bone is one of the seven bones that articulate to form the orbit. Its shape somewhat resembles that of a butterfly or bat with its wings extended.
The occipital bone is a cranial dermal bone and the main bone of the occiput. It is trapezoidal in shape and curved on itself like a shallow dish. The occipital bone overlies the occipital lobes of the cerebrum. At the base of the skull in the occipital bone, there is a large oval opening called the foramen magnum, which allows the passage of the spinal cord.
In the human skull, the frontal bone or sincipital bone is a unpaired bone which consists of two portions. These are the vertically oriented squamous part, and the horizontally oriented orbital part, making up the bony part of the forehead, part of the bony orbital cavity holding the eye, and part of the bony part of the nose respectively. The name comes from the Latin word frons.
The parietal bones are two bones in the skull which, when joined at a fibrous joint known as a cranial suture, form the sides and roof of the neurocranium. In humans, each bone is roughly quadrilateral in form, and has two surfaces, four borders, and four angles. It is named from the Latin paries (-ietis), wall.
The scalp is the area of the head where head hair grows. It is made up of skin, layers of connective and fibrous tissues, and the membrane of the skull. Anatomically, the scalp is part of the epicranium, a collection of structures covering the cranium. The scalp is bordered by the face at the front, and by the neck at the sides and back. The scientific study of hair and scalp is called trichology.
The crown is the top portion of the head behind the vertex. The anatomy of the crown varies between different organisms. The human crown is made of three layers of the scalp above the skull. The crown also covers a range of bone sutures, and contains blood vessels and branches of the trigeminal nerve.
The diploic veins are large, thin-walled valveless veins that channel in the diploë between the inner and outer layers of the cortical bone in the skull, first identified in dogs by the anatomist Guillaume Dupuytren. A single layer of endothelium lines these veins supported by elastic tissue. They develop fully by the age of two years. The diploic veins drain this area into the dural venous sinuses. The four major trunks of the diploic veins found on each side of the head are frontal, anterior temporal, posterior temporal, and occipital diploic veins. They tend to be symmetrical, with the same pattern of large veins on each side of the skull. It has been suggested that the venous patterns they form resemble fingerprints in their individuality.
The sagittal suture, also known as the interparietal suture and the sutura interparietalis, is a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint between the two parietal bones of the skull. The term is derived from the Latin word sagitta, meaning arrow.
The lambdoid suture, or lambdoidal suture, is a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint on the posterior aspect of the skull that connects the parietal bones with the occipital bone. It is continuous with the occipitomastoid suture.
The coronal suture is a dense, fibrous connective tissue joint that separates the two parietal bones from the frontal bone of the skull.
The cranial cavity, also known as intracranial space, is the space within the skull that accommodates the brain. The skull minus the mandible is called the cranium. The cavity is formed by eight cranial bones known as the neurocranium that in humans includes the skull cap and forms the protective case around the brain. The remainder of the skull is called the facial skeleton. Meninges are protective membranes that surround the brain to minimize damage to the brain in the case of head trauma. Meningitis is the inflammation of meninges caused by bacterial or viral infections.
The superior sagittal sinus, within the human head, is an unpaired dural venous sinus lying along the attached margin of the falx cerebri. It allows blood to drain from the lateral aspects of anterior cerebral hemispheres to the confluence of sinuses. Cerebrospinal fluid drains through arachnoid granulations into the superior sagittal sinus and is returned to venous circulation.
The pterion is the region where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones join. It is located on the side of the skull, just behind the temple. It is also considered to be the weakest part of the skull, which makes it clinically significant, as if there is a fracture around the pterion it could be accompanied by an epidural hematoma.
In anatomy, fibrous joints are joints connected by fibrous tissue, consisting mainly of collagen. These are fixed joints where bones are united by a layer of white fibrous tissue of varying thickness. In the skull, the joints between the bones are called sutures. Such immovable joints are also referred to as synarthroses.
The calvaria is the top part of the skull. It is the superior part of the neurocranium and covers the cranial cavity containing the brain. It forms the main component of the skull roof.
In human anatomy, the neurocranium, also known as the braincase, brainpan, or brain-pan, is the upper and back part of the skull, which forms a protective case around the brain. In the human skull, the neurocranium includes the calvaria or skullcap. The remainder of the skull is the facial skeleton.
The skull roof or the roofing bones of the skull are a set of bones covering the brain, eyes and nostrils in bony fishes and all land-living vertebrates. The bones are derived from dermal bone and are part of the dermatocranium.
The fetal head, from an obstetrical viewpoint, and in particular its size, is important because an essential feature of labor is the adaptation between the fetal head and the maternal bony pelvis. Only a comparatively small part of the head at term is represented by the face. The rest of the head is composed of the firm skull, which is made up of two frontal, two parietal, and two temporal bones, along with the upper portion of the occipital bone and the wings of the sphenoid.
References
- Gray, Henry; Keen, William Williams (1887). Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical. Lea brothers & co. pp. 203.
vertex skull anatomy.
- Beehner, Michael L., M.D. (2001). "Nomenclature proposal for the zones and landmarks of the balding scalp". Dermatologic Surgery. 27 (4): 385–390. doi:10.1046/j.1524-4725.2001.00289.x. PMID 11298712. S2CID 20497720.
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