Skull Flashcards

Explore the skull's cranial and facial bones, sutures, fossae, foramina, articulations, developmental features, and clinical landmarks.

Card 1 of 30Question

What is the skull?

The bony framework of the head that protects the brain, supports the face, and houses major sensory organs.

In This Section

1. What is the skull?

The bony framework of the head that protects the brain, supports the face, and houses major sensory organs.

2. How many bones form the typical adult skull, excluding auditory ossicles?

Twenty-two bones.

3. What are the two principal divisions of the skull?

The neurocranium and viscerocranium.

4. How many bones form the neurocranium?

Eight bones: the frontal, occipital, sphenoid, ethmoid, two parietal, and two temporal bones.

5. How many bones form the viscerocranium?

Fourteen facial bones, comprising six paired bones and two unpaired bones.

6. Which two facial bones are unpaired?

The mandible and vomer.

7. What is the calvaria?

The dome-shaped cranial vault forming the roof and superior walls of the cranial cavity.

8. What are the three structural layers of typical cranial vault bones?

The outer compact table, middle diploe, and inner compact table.

9. What is the cranial base?

The inferior portion of the neurocranium that supports the brain and contains neurovascular openings.

10. What are the three cranial fossae?

The anterior, middle, and posterior cranial fossae.

11. Which parts of the brain occupy the anterior cranial fossa?

The frontal lobes of the cerebral hemispheres.

12. Which cerebral lobes occupy the lateral portions of the middle cranial fossa?

The temporal lobes.

13. Which major brain structures occupy the posterior cranial fossa?

The cerebellum, pons, and medulla oblongata.

14. What type of joints connect most skull bones?

Fibrous joints called sutures.

15. Which suture connects the frontal bone to the parietal bones?

The coronal suture.

16. Which suture joins the two parietal bones?

The sagittal suture.

17. Which suture connects the parietal bones to the occipital bone?

The lambdoid suture.

18. What is the bregma?

The craniometric landmark at the junction of the coronal and sagittal sutures.

19. What is the lambda?

The craniometric landmark at the junction of the sagittal and lambdoid sutures.

20. What is the pterion?

The lateral skull region where the frontal, parietal, sphenoid, and temporal bones meet.

21. What is the asterion?

The junction of the parietal, occipital, and temporal bones near the mastoid region.

22. Which skull bone contains the foramen magnum?

The occipital bone.

23. Which structures pass through the optic canal?

The optic nerve (cranial nerve II) and ophthalmic artery.

24. Which cranial nerves pass through the jugular foramen?

The glossopharyngeal (IX), vagus (X), and accessory (XI) nerves.

25. Which skull bone contains the sella turcica?

The sphenoid bone, whose hypophyseal fossa accommodates the pituitary gland.

26. Which bones form the hard palate?

The palatine processes of the maxillae and horizontal plates of the palatine bones.

27. Which skull bones articulate to form the temporomandibular joint?

The mandible and temporal bone.

28. What are fontanelles in the developing skull?

Membranous gaps between cranial bones that accommodate brain growth and molding during birth.

29. How do the cranial vault and much of the cranial base differ in development?

The vault forms mainly through intramembranous ossification, while much of the base forms through endochondral ossification.

30. Why can a fracture near the pterion cause an epidural hematoma?

It may damage the anterior branch of the middle meningeal artery, producing bleeding between the skull and dura mater.