Talk:Skull

From Academic Kids

Dictionaries commonly refer to 'cranium' as the part of the skull containing the brain. The opening sentence here uses 'cranium' as a synonym for 'skull.’ That includes the facial bones, jaw etc., correct? I thought the common usage for 'cranium' was maybe a little imprecise, but this article suggests that it's completely wrong. It might be worth nailing this point down in some way. Larry Holyoke 3/12/05

No, cranium is identical to skull. The neurocranium contains the brain, and the viscerocranium the rest. JFW | T@lk 20:28, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Here are all the major divisions of the skull bones I'm aware of:

• skull = the whole thing.
• mandible = lower jaw
• cranium = skull, minus mandible
• splanchnocranium (viscerocranium) = facial bones
• neurocranium (calvarium) = braincase
• calotte = upper bones of braincase, (term rarely used)

[Source: White, T.D. 1991. Human osteology. Academic Press, Inc. San Diego, CA.] -- Dcfleck 21:30, 2005 Mar 12 (UTC)

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What's up with the first paragraph under Humans? The last sentence is incomplete. I'm on tenterhooks, wondering just what I can count. Ortonmc 18:47, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)

• Hope I answered that. =-) Alex.tan 03:09, 3 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Foramen ovale must be wrong in the list in this article, as it is a hole in the heart, not the skull. I doubt that anatomist have given the same name to two different structures in the human body. andy 17:02, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Seems it is really a duplicate name - at least according to [1] (http://imc.gsm.com/demos/hedemo/content/glossary/f.htm). andy 17:16, 16 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Asian Skull Features

"Among neurologists and pathologists, it is well-known that the most consistent and unique trait in East Asians is skull shape. However, this bit of knowledge is rarely discussed in public because of the need to avoid encouraging pseudoscientific theories like phrenology which attempt to connect skull shape to intelligence." Can anybody adds a description of Asian skull unique feature? Or at least an external link? This is wikipedia, which shall not worry about political correctness.

Well, here's what my old osteology textbook says:

The problems in using discrete cranial and dental features to determine ancestry are perhaps best appreciated by considering what all osteologists agree is a racial marker: the shovel-shaped incisors seen in high frequency in modern Asian populations... Suffice it to say that incisors from Asian populations show a high incidence of shoveling, but also that the presence of shoveled incisors is hardly grounds for confident identification of a dentition as Asian.

...compared to populations of African or European origin, Asian populations display skulls characterized by narrow, concave nasal bones, prominent cheek bones, circular orbits, and shoveled incisors. Compared to Asians and Europeans, African crania have been characterized as showing wide interorbital distances, rectangular orbits, broad nasal apertures with poor inferior definition, gracile cranial superstructures, and pronounced total facial and alveolar prognathism. European crania have been characterized as displaying narrow nasal apertures with sharp inferior borders, prominent nasal spines, heavy glabellar and supraorbital regions, receding cheek bones, and large, prominent nasal bones.

This is proceeded by the caveat:

...all workers agree that racial estimations are usually more difficult, less precise, and less reliable than estimations of age, sex, or stature.

Source:
White, T.D. and P.A. Folkens. 1991. Human Osteology. Academic Press, Inc.

-- Dcfleck 18:45, 2005 Apr 10 (UTC)