Left temporal bone
Os temporale sinistrum
SkeletalSkeletonHeadLeft side
- What it is
- Left temporal bone: a thin squama on the side of the skull, the zygomatic process forming the back of the cheek arch, the mastoid process behind the ear, the styloid process and the dense petrous part housing the middle and inner ear.
- Function
- Houses the organs of hearing and balance, forms the socket of the jaw joint and anchors the temporalis, masseter and sternocleidomastoid.
- Size
- Squama ≈ 6 × 5 cm; mastoid ≈ 2.5 cm
- Clinical note
- The pterion, where it meets the frontal, parietal and sphenoid, overlies the middle meningeal artery — a blow here can cause an epidural haematoma.