Human Skull Fully Explained Bones of Skull - HEAD AND NECK Anatomy

Human Skull

The skeleton of the head is called the skull. It consists of several bones that are joined together to form the cranium. The term skull also includes the mandible which is separate bone.

The skull can be divided into two main parts:

1. The calvaria or brain box is the upper part of the cranium which encloses the brain.

2. The facial skeleton constitutes the rest of the skull and includes the mandible.

Bones of the skull

The skull consists of the 28 bones which are named as follow:

a. The calvaria or brain case is composed of 14 bones including 3 paired ear ossicles.

1. Parietal(2)

2. Temporal(2)

3. Malleus(2)

4. Incus(2)

5. Stapes(2)

1. Frontal(1)

2. Occipital(1)

3. Sphenoid(1)

4. Ethmoid (1)

b.The facial skeleton is composed of 14 bones:

1. Maxilla-2

2. Zygomatic-2

3. Nasal-2

4. Lacrimal-2

5. Palatine-2

6. Inferior nasal concha-2 

1. Mandible-1

2. Vomer-1