Bones of the Human Skull

The human skull consists of several important bones that work together to form your head. The parietal bone forms the top and sides of your skull, while the frontal bone creates your forehead. At the back of your head sits the occipital bone, and the temporal bone houses your ear structures on each side.

Your face has its own set of specialized bones. The maxilla forms your upper jaw, while the mandible creates your lower jaw and contains the mandibular condyle and coronoid process for movement. The zygomatic bone forms your cheekbone, connecting to the temporal bone through the zygomatic process and temporal process.

Several sutures (joint lines) connect these skull bones together. The coronal suture joins the frontal and parietal bones, the squamosal suture connects the temporal and parietal bones, and the lambdoidal suture links the occipital bone to the parietal bones.

Did you know? The skull isn't one solid piece but rather 22 separate bones joined together. Most of these connections (sutures) remain slightly flexible in children but fuse more solidly in adulthood.