Skull Bones: Parietal

The flat bones of the skull are named for the parts of the brain they overlie. The parietal bones cover the top, sides, and back of the brain.  Many students forget that there are two parietal bones: left and right.  This is different than the other unpaired bones of the skull such as the frontalForehead bone; forms the front part of the skull and roof of the orbits. Smooth and curved. and occipitalPosterior and base of the skull; curves under to form the back of the head..  The parietal bones are large in relation to the other skull bones.  They cover the top, some of the sides, and the superiorAbove or toward the upper part of the body. portion of the posterior skull.  Basically, they are your brain hat.  

Both parietal bones articulate with the front or forehead bone.  That suture, running almost from ear to ear, is called the coronal sutureRuns across top of skull between frontal and parietal bones (like a headband)..  The parietal boneLarge, flat bones forming the top and sides of the skull; meet at the sagittal suture. covers a large portion of the cranium. It has more than a few sutures where it meets the other skull bones.  The parietals meet the occipital bone at the posterior of your skull. They are sutured by the lambdoid sutureInverted “V” shape between occipital and parietal bones on the back of skull. (lambdoid means “soft”).  

Just above the ear, the parietal bones articulate with the temporal boneBones on the sides of the skull near the ears; house structures of hearing and balance..  The suture binding them together is called the squamosal suture.  Finally, the parietals articulate with the sphenoidButterfly-shaped bone in the middle cranial floor; unites cranial and facial bones. bone. It could be considered part of the cranium but actually occupies more space of the face than the cranium.  The suture binding the parietal bones and the sphenoid bone is called the spheno-parietal bone.