The "polymorphous" history of a polymorphous skull bone: the sphenoid

Abstract

For a long time, because of its location at the skull base level, the sphenoid bone was rather mysterious as it was too difficult for anatomists to reach and to elucidate its true configuration. The configuration of the sphenoid bone led to confusion regarding its sutures with the other skull bones, its shape, its detailed anatomy, and the vascular and nervous structures that cross it. This article takes the reader on a journey through time and space, charting the evolution of anatomists' comprehension of sphenoid bone morphology from antiquity to its conception as a bone structure in the eighteenth century, and ranging from ancient Greece to modern Italy and France. The journey illustrates that many anatomists have attempted to name and to best describe the structural elements of this polymorphous bone.

Keywords: Anatomy; History; Sella turcica; Skull base; Sphenoid bone.

Fig. 1

a Endocranial view of the sphenoid bone, showing the body (1), lesser wings (2), and greater wings (3). b Exocranial view of the sphenoid bone with the pterygoid processes (4) (Dr. A. Iordache’s personal collection). c Vesalius’s drawing of the sphenoid bone contour (adapted from De humani corporis fabrica, 1555)

Fig. 2

Gabriel Falloppius, Explaining One of His Discoveries to the Cardinal Duke of Ferrara by Francis James Barraud (1856–1924), Wellcome Library, London

Fig. 3a–d

Drawings of the skull base highlighting the sphenoid bone in Vesalius’s De humani corporis fabrica (1955) (a and b) and in du Laurens’ Historia anatomica humani corporis (1600) (c and d)

Fig. 4

a Turkish Horse in a Stable by Theodore Gericault (1791–1824); note the labeled parts of the Turkish saddle: pommel (1), seat (2), and cantle (3) (public domain). b The anatomy of the sella turcica: tuberculum sellae (1), hypophysial fossa (2), and dorsum sellae (3) (Dr. A. Iordache’s personal collection)

Fig. 5

a Vanitas by Antonio de Pereda y Salgado (1632–1636). b Detail showing the pterygoid processes (indicated by asterisks) of the skull depicted in the painting (public domain)