Temporal fossa
The temporal fossa is a fossa on the side of the skull bounded by the temporal lines above, and the zygomatic arch below. Its floor is formed by the outer surfaces of four bones of the skull. The fossa is filled by the temporalis muscle.
Anatomy
Boundaries
- Medial/floor: frontal bone, parietal bone, temporal bone, and sphenoid bone. The floor of the fossa features the pterion.'
- Lateral/roof: temporal fascia.'
- Anterior: the frontal process of zygomatic bone, the zygomatic process of frontal bone, and the maxilla.
- Superior: Pair of temporal lines that arch across the skull from the zygomatic process of the frontal bone to the supramastoid crest of the temporal bone
- Inferior: zygomatic arch laterally and by the infratemporal crest of the greater wing of the sphenoid medially.
Contents
- Temporalis muscle
- Deep temporal arteries
- Deep temporal nerves
- Zygomaticotemporal nerve
Relations