Middle cranial fossa

Middle cranial fossa
Base of the skull. Upper surface. (Middle cranial fossa is the centermost of the three indentations, in pink and yellow.)
Details
Identifiers
Latin	fossa cranii media
TA	A02.1.00.049
FMA	54369
Anatomical terminology []

The middle cranial fossa, deeper than the anterior cranial fossa, is narrow medially and widens laterally to the sides of the skull. It is separated from the posterior fossa by the clivus and the petrous crest.

It is bounded in front by the posterior margins of the lesser wings of the sphenoid bone, the anterior clinoid processes, and the ridge forming the anterior margin of the chiasmatic groove; behind, by the superior angles of the petrous portions of the temporal bones and the dorsum sellæ; laterally by the temporal squamæ, sphenoidal angles of the parietals, and greater wings of the sphenoid. It is traversed by the squamosal, sphenoparietal, sphenosquamosal, and sphenopetrosal sutures.

It houses the temporal lobes of the brain and the pituitary gland.

The middle part of the fossa presents, in front, the chiasmatic groove and tuberculum sellae; the chiasmatic groove ends on either side at the optic foramen, which transmits the optic nerve and ophthalmic artery to the orbital cavity.

Behind the optic foramen the anterior clinoid process is directed backward and medialward and gives attachment to the tentorium cerebelli.

Behind the tuberculum sellæ is a deep depression, the sella turcica, containing the fossa hypophyseos, which lodges the hypophysis, and presents on its anterior wall the middle clinoid processes.