Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Sutures of the Skull

Sutures of the Skull

The human skull is composed of several bones that come together to protect the brain and support the structures of the face. The junctions where these bones meet are called sutures.
Sutures are immobile joints between adjacent bones of the skull. The narrow gap between the bones is filled with dense, fibrous connective tissue that unites the bones. The long sutures located between the skull bones are not straight but instead follow irregular, tightly twisting paths. These twisting lines tightly...

Overview of the Skull

Overview of the Skull

The cranium (skull) is the skeletal structure of the head that supports the face and protects the brain. It is subdivided into the facial bones and the brain case, or cranial vault. The facial bones underlie the facial structures, form the nasal cavity, enclose the eyeballs, and support the teeth of the upper and lower jaws.
The cranial vault surrounds and protects the brain and houses the middle and inner ear structures. This cavity is bounded superiorly by the rounded top of the skull, which...

Cranial Bones: Superior and Posterior View

Cranial Bones: Superior and Posterior View

The superior view of the cranium shows the frontal and paired parietal bones.
The frontal bone is the single bone that forms the forehead. At its anterior midline, between the eyebrows, there is a slight depression called the glabella. The frontal bone also forms the supraorbital margin of the orbit. Near the middle of this margin is the supraorbital foramen, the opening that provides passage for a sensory nerve to the forehead. The frontal bone is thickened just above each supraorbital margin,...

Cranial Bones: Lateral View

Cranial Bones: Lateral View

The lateral view of the cranium is dominated by temporal, sphenoid, and ethmoid bones.
The temporal bone forms the lower lateral side of the skull. The temporal bone is subdivided into several regions. The flattened upper portion is the squamous portion of the temporal bone. Below this area and projecting anteriorly is the zygomatic process of the temporal bone, which forms the posterior portion of the zygomatic arch. Posteriorly is the mastoid portion of the temporal bone. Projecting...

Synteny and Evolution

Synteny and Evolution

John H. Renwick first coined the term “synteny” in 1971, which refers to the genes present on the same chromosomes, even if they are not genetically linked. The species with common ancestry tend to show conserved syntenic regions. Therefore, the concept of synteny is nowadays used to describe the evolutionary relationship between species.
Around 80 million years ago, the human and mice lineages diverged from the common ancestor. During the course of evolution, the ancestral...

Bone Formation by Intramembranous Ossification

Bone Formation by Intramembranous Ossification

Intramembranous ossification is one of the two processes involved in the development of bones within an embryo. The flat bones of the face, most of the cranial bones, and the clavicles are formed via this process. During intramembranous ossification, the bones develop directly from sheets of undifferentiated mesenchymal connective tissue.
The process begins when mesenchymal cells in the embryonic skeleton gather together and differentiate into osteogenic cells, which then develop into ...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Traditional characters and Procrustes-aligned landmark data: a sensitivity analysis in morphological data type weighting for phylogenetic analyses.

Cladistics : the international journal of the Willi Hennig Society·2026

Same author

Vasculature segmentation in 3D hierarchical phase-contrast tomography images of human kidneys.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Fast eikonal phase retrieval for high-throughput beamlines.

Journal of synchrotron radiation·2026

Same author

Evolution of hierarchical phase-contrast tomography on the European Synchrotron beamlines BM05 and BM18: a whole adult human brain imaging case study.

Journal of synchrotron radiation·2026

Same author

The heterogeneous nature of atrioventricular conduction tissues in tetralogy of Fallot demonstrated by hierarchical phase-contrast tomography.

JTCVS structural and endovascular·2026

Same author

Cercopithecid Monkeys From the Pleistocene Markaytoli Site at Ledi-Geraru, Afar Region, Ethiopia.

American journal of biological anthropology·2026

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Published on: January 7, 2019

New infant cranium from the African Miocene sheds light on ape evolution.

Isaiah Nengo^1,2, Paul Tafforeau³, Christopher C Gilbert^4,5,6

¹Department of Anthropology, De Anza College, Cupertino, California 95104, USA.

|August 11, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Fossil ape cranium from Kenya reveals insights into early hominoid evolution. This discovery sheds light on the origins of apes and humans during the Miocene epoch.

More Related Videos

Author Spotlight: Streamlined Brain and Skull Modeling for Enhanced Neurosurgical Planning in NHP Research

Author Spotlight: Streamlined Brain and Skull Modeling for Enhanced Neurosurgical Planning in NHP Research

Published on: February 9, 2024

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Published on: February 20, 2026

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Feb 24, 2026

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Reverse Dissection and DiceCT Reveal Otherwise Hidden Data in the Evolution of the Primate Face

Published on: January 7, 2019

Author Spotlight: Streamlined Brain and Skull Modeling for Enhanced Neurosurgical Planning in NHP Research

Author Spotlight: Streamlined Brain and Skull Modeling for Enhanced Neurosurgical Planning in NHP Research

Published on: February 9, 2024

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Published on: February 20, 2026

Area of Science:

Paleoanthropology
Primate Evolution
Fossil Discoveries

Background:

The evolutionary history of humans and apes (hominoids) is not well understood.
The African fossil record from the Miocene epoch primarily consists of isolated jaws and teeth, limiting knowledge of ape cranial evolution.

Purpose of the Study:

To describe the most complete fossil ape cranium found to date.
To investigate the cranial and dental features of a new fossil ape species from Kenya.

Main Methods:

Excavation and analysis of a fossil ape cranium (KNM-NP 59050) from the 13-million-year-old Middle Miocene site of Napudet, Kenya.
Synchrotron imaging to visualize unerupted permanent teeth.
Comparative morphological analysis with extant and fossil catarrhines.

Main Results:

Discovery of KNM-NP 59050, a new species of *Nyanzapithecus*, representing the most complete fossil ape cranium described.
The specimen exhibits a fully ossified tubular ectotympanic, a derived trait shared with crown catarrhines.
Dental development and morphology show some similarities to hylobatids but lack definitive hylobatid synapomorphies.

Conclusions:

Nyanzapithecines are suggested to be stem hominoids, closely related to the origin of extant apes.
Features resembling hylobatids may have evolved independently multiple times within catarrhine evolution.