The temple, also known as the pterion, is a latch where four skull bones intersect: the
frontal,
parietal,
temporal, and
sphenoid. It is located on the side of the
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...
behind the
eye between the forehead and the ear. The
temporal muscle covers this area and is used during
mastication.
Cladistics classifies land
vertebrate
Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain.
The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...
s based on the presence of an
upper hole, a
lower hole,
both, or
neither in the cover of
dermal bone that formerly covered the
temporalis muscle, whose origin is the temple and whose insertion is the
jaw.
Etymology
The word "temple" as used in anatomy has a separate etymology from the other meaning of word ''temple'', meaning "place of worship". Both come from
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
, but the word for the place of worship comes from ', whereas the word for the part of the head comes from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...
*', modified from ', plural form ("both temples") of ', a word that refers both to "time" and to this part of the head. Due to its shared spelling (but not shared source) with the word for
time
Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
, the adjective for both is "temporal" (both "pertaining to time" and "pertaining to the anatomical temple").
The name of the temporalis muscle looks like a form of the Latin word "tempus" meaning "time", but this is a coincidence and the two words do not come from the same root.
See also
*
Pterion, the weakest part of the skull
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Human head and neck
Vertebrate anatomy