Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, students should be able to:

  • Identify and describe the 8 cranial and 14 facial bones of the skull.
  • Locate and name key foramina, processes, and sutures on the skull.
  • Distinguish between adult and fetal skull features, including fontanelles.
  • Recognize the location and purpose of paranasal sinuses.

Cranial and Facial Bones

The skull protects the brain and supports the structures of the face. It consists of cranial bones (protecting the brain) and facial bones (forming the face and jaw).
You’ll be expected to identify key bones, sutures, and openings. Click here for a detailed description of the human skull (Betts et al., 2022).

Start your skull adventure by exploring the unlabeled 3D models and exploded views below. These tools let you rotate, zoom, and observe how the bones of the skull fit together from different angles.

👉Rotate a skull in 3D! Use this unlabeled model to get familiar with the overall shape and structure of the skull. Rotate it freely to observe how bones fit together from different angles.

💡 Tip: Try identifying major regions like the cranium, jaw, and eye orbits before moving on to labeled models.

👉Watch This Video: Exploded Skull with Color-Coded Bones. This video shows the skull rotating and separating into individual bones, each color-coded and labeled.

🎥 Get an overview of relative bone positions and the amazing variety of shapes before learning all the bone names.

Guided Question:

🟡 Which bone is centrally located and joins with most of the other bones of the skull?
(Hint: It’s shaped like a butterfly and forms part of the eye orbit.)

💭 Reflection Prompt

After exploring the rotating and exploded skull models, take a moment to reflect: What surprised you about the structure or arrangement of the skull bones?

Consider how the bones fit together, which ones are most central, and how their shapes relate to their functions.

Use the figures and text descriptions provided below to begin identifying major cranial and facial bones, sutures and foramina.

🦴 Learn the Skull Bones

First, review the text descriptions of each cranial and facial bone below to understand their locations and features.
Then, head to the 🌐 Interactive Tools section to explore these bones in 3D using rotating models, exploded views, and labeled atlases.

💡 Tip: Combine the figures, text and interactive 3D tools to master bone names and locations. Use the Test Your Knowledge section to reinforce your identification skills!

Location: Anterior and superior portion of the skull. A single bone that forms the forehead.

Description:

  • Begins as two bones that typically fuse around age 8.
  • Forms the eyebrow ridges and the ridge above the nose.
  • Extends inferiorly into the orbit of the eye.
  • Contains the supraorbital foramen.

Interactive Resources

🔗 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)

🔗Whole Skull Anatomy – 3D Atlas of Neurological Surgery

Location: Posterior to the frontal bone; form the superior sides of the skull.

Description:

  • Meet along the midline to form the sagittal suture.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyZone Exploded Skull   

Location: Lateral sides of the skull.

Description:

  • Articulate with the mandible via the mandibular fossa.
  • Mandibular condyle is rounded portion of mandible that articulates in the fossa.
  • Posterior to the fossa is the external auditory meatus (ear canal).
  • Temporal bones have three processes:
    1. Zygomatic process
    2. Styloid process
    3. Mastoid process

Interactive Resources:
🔗 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)  

Location: Posterior and basal part of the cranium.

Description:

  • Contains the foramen magnum and occipital condyles.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 InnerBody Skull Explorer

Location: Anterior to the temporal bone; inferior to frontal and parietal bones.

Description:

  • Keystone bone connecting several cranial and facial bones of the cranium
  • Forms the posterior wall of the eye orbit.
  • Looks like a butterfly wing inside cranium.
  • Contains sphenoidal sinuses that drain into the nasal cavity.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyTOOL               

Location: Between the eye orbits; anterior cranial floor.

Description:

  • Contains sinuses and forms part of the nasal septum.
  • Has two bony shelves called superior and middle nasal conchae.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyZone Exploded Skull          

Location: Bridge of the nose.

Description:

  • Fused rectangular bones.
  • Cartilage below forms most of the nose.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 InnerBody Skull Explorer

Location: Upper jaw.

Description:

  • Form the hard palate, floor of eye orbit, and nasal cavity walls.
  • Support upper teeth in alveoli (socket).
  • Contain infraorbital foramina (supplying nerves & blood vessels to the nose).

Interactive Resources:
🔗 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)

Location: Posterior third of the hard palate (hard to see).

Description:

  • L-shaped bones forming part of the nasal cavity and eye orbit floor.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyTOOL

Location: Cheek and lateral eye orbit.

Description:

  • Form the cheek prominence and eye orbit surface.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)  

Location: Medial eye orbit.

Description:

  • Small bones between maxilla and anterior portion of the ethmoid.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyZone Exploded Skull   

Location: Lateral nasal cavity.

Description:

  • Thin, curved bones that divide the nasal cavity into air channels.
  • Covered with membranes.
  • Divide the nasal cavity into the channels through which air flows to be warmed and moistened.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 AnatomyTOOL

Location: Posterior median line of nasal cavity.

Description:

  • Joins maxillae, palatines, ethmoid, and sphenoid.

Interactive Resources:
🔗 InnerBody Skull Explorer

Location: Lower jaw.
Description:

  • Only movable skull bone.
  • Contains body and rami (ramus – singular; rami – plural):
  • Each ramus consists of the following:
    • Mandibular condyle—articulates in mandibular fossa of temporal bone
    • Coronoid process for muscle attachment
    • Mandibular notch
  • Teeth sit in alveoli.
  • Mandibular foramina present on medial surfaces of the rami.
  • Two mental foramina on the outer lateral surfaces of the body.

 Interactive Resources:

🔗 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)                                 

🌐 Interactive Tools (Explore the Skull in 3D)

Use these tools to explore the human skull in 3D. Rotate, zoom, and click on individual bones to reveal names and anatomical details.

🧭 Open these interactives in a separate browser tab so you can view the models while reading the bone descriptions above.

📌 What to look for while exploring:

  • Cranial bones
  • Facial bones
  • Major sutures
  • Foramina

👉 InnerBody Skull Explorer

Click the selection tool arrow and choose “Hide” to remove the colored muscles and focus on the bones.
Rotate the skull and click on individual bones to view their names and descriptions.
💡 Great for reviewing cranial vs. facial bones and exploring bone relationships interactively.

👉AnatomyZone Exploded Skull!

View the human skull as it separates into individual, color-coded bones—each clearly labeled for easy identification.
💡 Perfect for studying how bones connect, identifying sutures, and visualizing the spatial relationships between cranial and facial bones.

👉 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)

Explore a clean, anatomically accurate 3D model of the human skull with clearly labeled cranial and some facial bones. Rotate and zoom to examine bone shapes, connections, and spatial relationships from multiple angles.
💡 Excellent for learning bone names and practicing identification before testing your knowledge.

👉 Whole Skull Anatomy – 3D Atlas of Neurological Surgery
Explore a highly detailed 3D model of the human skull featuring labeled bones, sutures, and foramina—including the supraorbital foramen.
💡 Ideal for deep dives into skull anatomy, though it includes more structures than required for this course—focus on the bones bolded in your lab manual.

🔎 Note: The supraorbital foramina may not be visible in all digital modes.

✅ Test Your Knowledge

Ready to test your skills? Use these activities to check your ability to identify skull bones and sinuses.

You’ll be expected to identify key bones, sutures, and openings. Use this model to test your ability to locate and name a variety of cranial and facial bones, as well as major foramina and sutures. Quickly review and quiz yourself on labeled bones and key features. Great for self-checks before & after lab!

👉 Friso Jansen’s Labeled Skull (Sketchfab)

👉AnatomyTOOL

Test your ability to identify cranial and facial bones using the lateral skull diagram.

How fast can you identify skull bones?
👉 Start the game. Good luck!

Sign up for more access.

  1. skull-bones-flash-cards

2. Match the terms with descriptions.

Sinuses

👉Start the game. Good luck!

Fetal Skull

At birth, the skull is not fully ossified. The fontanelles—flexible regions of fibrous connective tissue—allow for distortion during birth.

  • Anterior fontanelle: Diamond-shaped, between frontal and parietal bones.
  • Occipital fontanelle: Between parietal and occipital bones.
  • Sphenoidal & mastoid fontanelles: Seen on each inferior side.
    Ossification completes by age two.

👉Start the game. Good luck!

1. AnatomyTOOL – Human Fetal Skull by Eric Bauer

  • Model Type: Real fetal skull captured via photogrammetry (Agisoft Photoscan).
  • Features: High-resolution, rotatable in 3D, based on actual specimen.
  • Use Case: Excellent for anatomical realism and studying fontanelles and sutures.
  • 🔗 View on Sketchfab

👉Start the game. Good luck!

Attributions