The skull it’s a structure made up of flat and irregular bones that serve as protection for the brain. It can be divided into two parts: an inferior part, called the splanchnocranium (or visceral skull), which supports the facial viscera and, an superior part, the neurocranium (or neural skull), which houses the encephalic portion of the CNS.

👉 Also learn about the Neurocranium and Viscerocranium!

Both are divided by an imaginary line that runs from the glabella to the outer occipital bulge, called thenasion-inion.

The splanchnocranium (or visceral skull) is the facial skeleton, which composes the bones of the mouth (maxilla and mandible), nose/nasal cavity, and the orbital cavities. In total, we have 14 irregular bones: 2 odds (mandible and vomer) and 6 even (maxilla, inferior nasal concha, zygomatic, palatine, nasal and lacrimal bones).

The neurocranium (or neural skull) is the part focused on neuroanatomy, it has 8 bones: 1 frontal, 2 parietal (laterally), 2 temporal (also laterally), 1 sphenoid (larger wings – laterally), 1 ethmoid and 1 occipital (posteriorly).

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