The adult human skull contains 22 bones. These are divided into two groups: 8 cranial bones that form the protective case around your brain, and 14 facial bones that give your face its shape and support structures like your eyes, nose, and mouth.
The 8 Cranial Bones
The upper portion of your skull, sometimes called the cranial vault or neurocranium, is built from eight bones fitted tightly together. Four of these are single, unpaired bones: the frontal bone (your forehead), the occipital bone (the back and base of your skull), the sphenoid bone (a butterfly-shaped bone at the base behind your eyes), and the ethmoid bone (a small bone between your eye sockets that helps form the nasal cavity). The remaining four come in pairs: two parietal bones that make up most of the top and sides of your skull, and two temporal bones that sit around your ears.
Together, these eight bones create a rigid shell that absorbs impact and shields the brain. They also protect key sensory organs, including your eyes and inner ears, and provide anchor points for the muscles that move your jaw and head.
The 14 Facial Bones
Below and in front of the cranial vault, 14 bones form the facial skeleton (sometimes called the viscerocranium). Most of these come in pairs: two maxillae (upper jaw), two zygomatic bones (cheekbones), two nasal bones (the bridge of your nose), two lacrimal bones (tiny bones near the inner corners of your eyes), two palatine bones (part of the roof of your mouth and nasal cavity), and two inferior nasal conchae (thin, scroll-shaped bones inside the nasal passages). Two bones are unpaired: the vomer, a thin blade that forms part of the nasal septum, and the mandible, your lower jawbone.
The mandible is the only skull bone that moves freely. It hinges at the temporomandibular joint on each side, letting you chew, speak, and yawn. Every other skull bone is locked in place by sutures.
How Skull Bones Connect
Unlike the ball-and-socket or hinge joints in your limbs, most skull bones meet at sutures, which are interlocking, slightly flexible joints. In adults, these joints fuse over time and become nearly immovable. The major sutures include the coronal suture, which runs horizontally from ear to ear between the frontal and parietal bones; the sagittal suture, which runs down the center of the top of the skull between the two parietal bones; the lambdoid suture, connecting the parietal bones to the occipital bone at the back; and the squamous sutures, which join the temporal and parietal bones on each side above the ears.
A fifth suture, the metopic suture, runs vertically through the frontal bone at the forehead. This one typically fuses completely during early childhood, which is why it isn’t always visible on an adult skull.
Babies Have More Skull Bones
Newborns start with more skull bones than adults. A baby is born with five major skull bones that haven’t yet fused together, leaving soft gaps called fontanelles between them. These gaps serve two purposes: they allow the skull to compress slightly during delivery, and they give the brain room to grow rapidly during the first year of life. The fontanelles gradually close within the first one to two years as the bones knit together along suture lines.
A newborn’s entire skeleton contains roughly 275 to 300 bones. Over childhood and adolescence, many of these fuse, eventually leaving an adult with 206 bones total.
Bones Often Confused With the Skull
You may see some sources cite 28 skull bones instead of 22. That count typically includes the six tiny ossicles (three in each ear) that sit inside the temporal bones. These are the smallest bones in your body, and while they’re housed within the skull, most anatomy references count them separately because they function as part of the hearing system rather than as structural skull bones.
The hyoid bone, a small horseshoe-shaped bone in the front of the neck that supports the tongue, is another frequent source of confusion. It’s part of the axial skeleton but is classified as its own structure, not a skull bone. It’s the only bone in the body that doesn’t directly articulate with any other bone.
What Each Group Actually Does
The cranial bones do more than just shield the brain. The frontal bone contains the frontal sinuses, air-filled pockets that lighten the skull’s weight and warm incoming air. The temporal bones house the structures of the middle and inner ear. The sphenoid bone contains the sella turcica, a small depression that cradles the pituitary gland.
The facial bones collectively create the architecture for breathing, eating, and sensory function. The maxillae and palatine bones form the roof of the mouth. The nasal bones and inferior conchae shape the nasal passages, directing airflow and filtering particles. The zygomatic bones protect the eyes from the sides and give your cheeks their prominence. Without this scaffolding, the soft tissues of the face would have no framework, and functions as basic as chewing or breathing through your nose wouldn’t be possible.