Nasal bone

Bone: Nasal bone
Nasal bone visible at center, in dark green.
Cartilages of the nose. Side view. (Nasal bone visible at upper left.)
Latin	os nasale
Gray's	subject #37 156

The nasal bones are two small oblong bones, varying in size and form in different individuals; they are placed side by side at the middle and upper part of the face, and form, by their junction, "the bridge" of the nose.

Each has two surfaces and four borders.

Surfaces

The outer surface is concavoconvex from above downward, convex from side to side; it is covered by the Procerus and Compressor naris, and perforated about its center by a foramen, for the transmission of a small vein.

The inner surface is concave from side to side, and is traversed from above downward, by a groove for the passage of a branch of the nasociliary nerve.

Articulations

The nasal articulates with four bones: two of the cranium, the frontal and ethmoid, and two of the face, the opposite nasal and the maxilla.

In other animals

In primitive bony fish and tetrapods, the nasal bones are the most anterior of a set of four paired bones forming the roof of the skull, being followed in sequence by the frontals, the parietals, and the postparietals. Their form in living species is highly variable, depending on the shape of the head, but they generally form the roof of the snout or beak, running from the nostrils to a position short of the orbits. In most animals, they are generally therefore proportionally larger than in humans or great apes, because of the shortened faces of the latter. Turtles, unusually, lack nasal bones, with the prefrontal bones of the orbit reaching all the way to the nostrils.^[1]

Additional images

Orbital bones	Lateral wall of nasal cavity, showing ethmoid bone in position.	Articulation of nasal and lacrimal bones with maxilla.	Right nasal bone. Outer surface.
Right nasal bone. Inner surface.	Close up of side view of the skull.	Side view of the skull.	The skull from the front.
Horizontal section of nasal and orbital cavities.	Medial wall of left orbit.	Sagittal section of skull.	Roof, floor, and lateral wall of left nasal cavity.

See also

• Bone terminology
• Terms for anatomical location
• Vomer
• Osteology

External links

• nasal+bone at eMedicine Dictionary
• SUNY Figs 22:02-07 - "Anterior view of skull."
• SUNY Labs 29:st-0206 - "Orbits and Eye: Bones"
• SUNY Figs 33:01-03 - "The bones of the lateral nasal wall."
• Roche Lexicon - illustrated navigator, at Elsevier 34256.000-1

References

This article was originally based on an entry from a public domain edition of Gray's Anatomy. As such, some of the information contained within it may be outdated.