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| pertaining to or affecting the heart and blood vessels |
| the movable organ in the floor of the mouth functioning in eating, tasting, and in speaking |
| parietal bone | |
| —n | |
| either of the two bones forming part of the roof and sides of the skull | |
parietal bone n.
Either of two irregularly quadrilateral bones between the frontal and occipital bones that together form the sides and top of the skull.
parietal bone
cranial bone forming part of the side and top of the head. In front each parietal bone adjoins the frontal bone; in back, the occipital bone; and below, the temporal and sphenoid bones. The parietal bones are marked internally by meningeal blood vessels and externally by the temporal muscles. They meet at the top of the head (sagittal suture) and form a roof for the cranium. The parietal bone forms in membrane (i.e., without a cartilaginous precursor); the sagittal suture closes between ages 22 and 31. In primates that have large jaws and well-developed chewing muscles (e.g., gorillas and baboons), the parietal bones may be continued upward at the midline to form a sagittal crest. Among early hominids, Paranthropus (also called Australopithecus robustus) sometimes exhibited a sagittal crest.
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