The tuberculum sellae (or the

tubercle In anatomy, a tubercle (literally 'small tuber', Latin for 'lump') is any round nodule, small eminence, or warty outgrowth found on external or internal organs of a plant or an animal. In plants A tubercle is generally a wart-like projectio ...

of the

sella turcica The sella turcica (Latin for 'Turkish saddle') is a saddle-shaped depression in the body of the sphenoid bone of the human skull and of the skulls of other hominids including chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. It serves as a cephalometric la ...

) is a slight median elevation upon the superior aspect of the

body of sphenoid bone The body of the sphenoid bone, more or less cubical in shape, is hollowed out in its interior to form two large cavities, the sphenoidal sinuses, which are separated from each other by a septum. Superior surface The superior surface of the body ...

(that forms the floor of the

middle cranial fossa The middle cranial fossa is formed by the sphenoid bones, and the temporal bones. It lodges the temporal lobes, and the pituitary gland. It is deeper than the anterior cranial fossa, is narrow medially and widens laterally to the sides of the skull ...

) at the anterior boundary of the

( hypophyseal (pituitary) fossa) and posterior boundary of the

chiasmatic groove The chiasmatic groove (chiasmatic sulcus, optic groove, prechiasmatic sulcus) is a transverse groove upon the superior aspect of the body of sphenoid bone within the middle cranial fossa. It is bounded anteriorly by the sphenoidal limbus (a variab ...

. A

middle clinoid process The middle clinoid process is a small, bilaterally paired elevation on either side of the tuberculum sellae, at the anterior boundary of the sella turcica. A (larger) anterior clinoid process is situated lateral to each middle clinoid process. ...

flanks the tuberculum sellae on either side.

Additional images

File:Slide1iiii.JPG, Tuberculum sellae

References

External links

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Diagram at uni-mainz.de
Bones of the head and neck {{musculoskeletal-stub