SUPPERLATIVES SKULL

22 (8 cranial + 14 facial)

Total bones of the adult skull

Mandible

Largest bone of the face

Mandible

Only movable bone of the skull

Lacrimal bone

Smallest, most fragile bone of the face

Nasal bones

Most frequently fractured facial bones

Petrous part of the temporal bone

Hardest, densest bone in the body

Foramen magnum

Largest foramen in the skull

Maxillary sinus

Largest paranasal sinus

Inferior nasal concha

Largest of the three nasal conchae

Lamina papyracea (orbital plate of ethmoid)

Thinnest bone of the orbit

Sagittal suture

Longest suture of the skull

Pterion

Thinnest, weakest point of the lateral skull

Anterior fontanelle

Largest fontanelle

Sphenoid (optic canal ×2, superior orbital fissure ×2,

foramen rotundum ×2, ovale ×2, spinosum ×2,

pterygoid canal ×2)

Bone with the most foramina/canals of any

single skull bone

Temporal bone

Bone with the most complex internal cavity

system

Facial nerve within the facial canal of the temporal

bone

Longest nerve pathway through a single

bony canal in the skull

Jugular foramen (CN IX, X, XI) and superior orbital

fissure (CN III, IV, VI + V1)

Only foramen transmitting three cranial

nerves together

Carotid canal

Widest canal at the skull base for a single

major artery

Foramen spinosum (relative to rotundum/ovale)

Smallest of the named skull foramina

Foramen lacerum

Only cartilage-filled (not a true bony)

opening at the base of skull