Skull

The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate.

thumb|3D model of cochlea and semicircular canals The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the organ of Corti, the sensory organ of hearing, which is distributed along the partition separating the fluid chambers in the coiled tapered tube of the cochlea.

cavity or socket of the skull in which the eye and its appendages are situated

A fontanelle (or fontanel) (colloquially, soft spot) 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.

Joints connecting the jawbone to the skull

Form of body alteration

thumb|right|The choanae (internal nostrils) of a cat, indicated by the dashed lines and bounded by the vomer (blue gray) and the [[palatine bone (orange)]]

upper part of the neurocranium that covers the cranial cavity containing the brain

cheek bone

inferior area of the skull, composed of the endocranium and lower parts of the skull roof

The bregma is the anatomical point on the skull at which the coronal suture is intersected perpendicularly by the sagittal suture.

ridge of bone along the top of a skull

dense, fibrous connective tissue joint on the posterior aspect of the skull

connective tissue joint of the skull

space inside the skull formed by eight cranial bones know as the neurocranium

the upper surface of the head

thumb|Caricature of capoeira carioca from Rio, using cocada headbutt.

Shallow depression on the side of the human skull

cavity that is part of the skull

thumb|Sphenoparietal suture highlighted in red 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.

bone meeting point in the skull

structure in the skull

Midline joint in the frontal bone of the forehead

archaeological find

part of the cranial cavity, located between the foramen magnum and tentorium cerebelli

Passage in the skull's temporal bone

Cup made from a skull

cranial suture between the temporal squama and the parietal bone

air-filled cavities in the temporal bone

Diploë ( or ) is the spongy cancellous bone separating the inner and outer layers of the cortical bone of the skull. It is a subclass of trabecular bone.

Part of the human skull

part of the temporal bone

fixed joints between bones held together by dense, fibrous tissue

Fontanelle in human skull

cranial suture between the occipital bone and the temporal bone

cranial suture

funnel-shaped opening in the bone of the oral hard palate immediately behind the incisor teeth where blood vessels and nerves pass

part of skull housing the projecting frontal lobes of the brain

air space in the petrous portion of the temporal bone

separated from the posterior fossa by the clivus and the petrous crest

suture between the ethmoid bone and the frontal bone

Posterior part of the temporal bone

cranial suture between the sphenoid bone and the zygomatic bone

cranial suture between the sphenoid bone and the frontal bone

Rigid joint between zygomatic bone (cheekbone) and temporal bone

cranial suture

anatomical feature of the human skull

cranial suture between the sphenoid bone and the parietal bone

suture between sphenoid bone and petrous part of temporal bone

prominent bulge of the occipital bone at the back of the skull

gap between bones in the human skull

large hole in the posterior border of the temporal bone

roofing bones of the skull

A mastoidectomy is a procedure performed to remove the mastoid air cells near the middle ear. The procedure is part of the treatment for mastoiditis, chronic suppurative otitis media or cholesteatoma. Additionally, it is sometimes performed as part of other procedures, such as cochlear implants, or to access the middle ear.

anatomical fissure human skull

straight or arched rod of bone that forms the posterior rim of the eye opening (orbit) in amniote skulls

The point where the upper temporal line cuts the coronal suture is named the stephanion.

blow to the back of the head or to the base of the skull

The chondrocranium (or cartilaginous neurocranium) is the primitive cartilaginous skeletal structure of the fetal skull that grows to envelop the rapidly growing embryonic brain.