AbstractWormian bones have been described as small irregular ossicles which are present within the cranial sutures and fontanelles. A vast majority of these wormian bones are located in the lambdoid suture (lambda). Two dry adult human skulls were found during medicolegal examination out of which one skull showed persistent metopic suture and a series of sutural bones while the other showed the presence of only wormian bones. The incidence of metopic suture varies in different races and can be due to various causes. The metopic suture is a dentate-type suture extending from the nasion to the bregma. It fuses at around 18 months to 7 years after birth, by which time most of the increase in breadth of the forehead is complete. When the metopic suture persists into adulthood it is known as “metopism”. Presence of more than ten sutural bones is unusual. It may warrant further investigations to identify an underlying pathology of hereditary disorder that has affected the skull growth at an early stage of development. The presence of metopic suture simulates the fracture of frontal bone, therefore it should be properly ruled out in x-rays by radiologists and neurosurgeons. The anatomical knowledge of Wormian bones is clinically important as they are markers for diseases and important in the primary diagnosis of brittle bone disease like osteogenesis imperfecta.
Keywords: Lambdoid Suture; Wormian Bones; Metopic Suture.