One of two bones in the skull which form the side of the socket of the eye.
A bone forming the base of the cranium behind the eyes. It consists of a body, containing air spaces continuous with the nasal cavity; two wings that form part of the orbits; and two pterygoid processes projecting down from the point where the two wings join the body.
The large bone at the base of the skull that has the ethmoid bone in front of it, the occipital bone behind it, and the parietal and temporal bones at the sides. It is shaped like a large moth. Its two broad, curved wings form the front walls of the middle cranial fossae, and its two “tails,” the pterygoid processes, which hang in front of the neurocranium in the pterygoid fossa behind the facial skeleton. Between the wings, in the center of the body of the sphenoid bone, there is a deep, concave pocket (the sella turcica), in which the pituitary gland lies.
Bone that joins all of the bones of the cranium together.
A cranial bone situated at the skull’s foundation, encompassing spaces for the sphenoidal sinuses, passages for the optic nerve and other nerves, as well as an area designated for the pituitary gland.