Juan Silva & Claudia Araya

The sutural bones are visible supernumerary bones in skull sutures and fontanelle, and are variable in number, shape, size and position. Formed from normal and /or additional ossification, Calleja in 1870, describes a sutural ring-shaped bone with a bone center (umbilicated). Our research objective was to look for and describe these bones. We used 71 skulls of Chilean adults of both sexes, in which we sought, marked, photographed and measured the molluscum sutural bones. Two (2) skulls were found with presence of these bones representing 2.82 % of the total sample and 8 % sutural skulls with bones. The results are consistent with the literature regarding presence of sutural bones, and their direct relationship to sex and size of the skull. We also noted the observation and description by Calleja, finding sutural bones that met their description. Knowledge of these bones is useful in forensic identification.

KEY WORDS: Sutural bones; Wormian bones; Skull bones; Sutures and fontanelles of the skull; Forensic identification.

SILVA, J. & ARAYA, C. Umbilicated sutural bones. Int. J. Morphol., 34(2):610-615, 2016.