From child to adult

The skull is the part of the skeleton that makes up the head. The main job of the skull, or "cranium", is to support the face and protect the brain. In addition, the skull’s design is important for many sensory organs and bodily functions:

• The place of the eyes and the distance between them has been adapted to our need to see depth in images.
• Our ears are placed so we can tell which direction a sound is coming from.
• The food we need to eat so our bodies work properly has determined the shape and location of our teeth.

All of this has developed over millions of years as our bodies have evolved and adapted to our conditions.

An adult cranium contains 29 bones. 14 of these bones are in the face and eight in the head and the skullcap and brainpan. The skull bones are held together by zig-zag shaped rigid joints. These are called "sutures". The six bones of the middle ear can be found by the temples. Sometimes, the hyoid bone of the throat is included as part of the skull. The hyoid bone supports the voice box or "larynx".

The size of a human skull and thus the size of the brain is limited by the width of the birth canal. The sutures, which look like tight seams on the skull, can be displaced and overlap each other during childbirth, so that the baby's head can pass through the birth canal.