“It depends on the methodology adopted”, explains Márcio Cardoso, an anthropologist from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). The cranial structure is formed by 22 bones, eight of which are in the cranial box and 14 in the face. “However, the count can increase to 28 if we consider the three ossicles of each ear, which do not help compose the skull, but are contained in it, inside the temporal bones”, concludes Cardoso. In addition to protecting the brain, the cranial system contains the cavities of the organs responsible for our senses, the openings for the passage of air and food, and the teeth for chewing. On average, it measures 1,360 cm3 and weighs 4 kg.
Anthropologists and archaeologists use the number of bones in the skull to assess the age range of bodies found.
Puzzle
Tough game
To connect and protect other tissues, the human body has connective tissues. Bones are made of a specialized type of connective tissue called bone tissue. Its main function is to support muscles and tendons and serve as a “lever” during movement. Bones also protect organs, as in the case of the skull, which protects the brain.
two become one
A baby is born with 350 bones in the body. But an elderly person dies at just 206. It’s just that several of them “weld themselves together” throughout their lives. For example: in an adult, the jaw is a single bone, but until the age of 2 it is formed by two parts. Up to 5, the frontal bone is also two halves. And, during the embryonic phase, the occiput is divided into four
Crazy
To facilitate childbirth, we are born with a “gap” between some bones in the skull, filled with a fibrous connective tissue called a suture. Some of these spaces are ossified soon after birth. But, in the case of the fontanel (the “soft spot”), which allows the baby’s brain to grow, the process can take up to 13 years! It only ends when the sexual hormones of adolescence kick in.
Men x Women
The square shape of the male face is basically a matter of larger angles in the bones. Their cranial mass is longer and more massive, and the occipital protuberance (the “pointed” bone above the end of the spine) is more pronounced. In women, the jaw is more rounded and pointed and the eyebrow region on the frontal bone is less prominent.
Although they are also white and hard, teeth are not bones. Are a calcified tissue called dentin
cranial box
1 Right and left parietal -Envelop the chest laterally and superiorly
2 Frontal – Structure of the forehead that ends at the eyebrow
3 Ethmoid – Forms the top of the nasal cavity
4 Sphenoid – Connects the base of the skull to the eye sockets
5 Temporals -Run along the side. Next to them are the inner ear ossicles: the malleus, anvil and stapes.
6 Occipital – Forms the base
Face
7 Lacrimals -The smallest and most fragile bones of the face. Form the inner part of the eye socket
8 Zygomatics -These are the “cheekbones”. They lie beneath the lower ridge of the eye
9 Upper Jaws – They are the largest in the face and make up the upper arch of the mandible
10 Nasals – Form the bridge of the nose (the rest is just cartilage)
11 Vomer – Divides the nasal cavity into right and left
12 Mandible – lower arch of teeth. It is the only bone in the face that we can move freely.
13 Nasal Concha – Located on the lateral wall of the nasal cavity
14 Palatines – Inner part of the roof of the mouth
CONSULTANCY Fabíola Reis, professor of the anatomy department at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora, and Márcio Alberto Cardoso, anthropologist at the Federal University of Minas Gerais
SOURCE Book The Human Body: A Family Reference Guideseveral authors