Influence of the Dura-Mater Sinus in the Morphology

of the Internal face of the Occipital squama

Domingo CAMPILLO, M.D.

Head of the Paleopathology and Paleoanthropology Laboratori of the
"Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, Seu Central. Barcelona"
Professor of the Science History of the "Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona".

In the evolutive processes which in the mammalians go to superior primates and to hominids, it is the
occipital bone that shows a larger variability, as for its position and for its morphology. The main changes are
two: 1) position change of the occipital foramen which turns 90° round in posterior sense and from vertical to
horizontal; 2) the expansion of the squama which originate the occipital suprainial or neo-occipital. Those
changes modify the situation of the venous sinus of the duramater in the occipital region, modifying at the time,
the internal morphology of the occipital squama, especially in its suprainial portion.
In the newborn, the digital markings are not perceived, and the impression of the grooves is usually very
attenuated or even imperceptible in the internal face of the occipital squama. The prints clearly appear from the
first year on, after the fontanels having closed, as they have been produced by the expansion of the encephalon,
which by compressing the meninges over the endocranial face of the bones, leaves the attenuated impression of
the brain circumvolutions and of the venous sinus in the endocranial. At four years old, the prints reach their
maximum and from 8 to 10 years old, the digital markings begin to attenuate and nearly completely disappear
in the adult, modifying in some sectors the impression of the sinus.
The morphological variation can be appreciated both in the child and in the adult, and in a previous work,
when we reviewed 727 skulls, we summarize the vertex of the squama in three typologies and in four the
endinion region, where the sagital sinus bifurcates. Those basical typologies, show some subvarieties. Other
morphologies can also be present, as the torcular fosae, the vermial fosae, the sagital infratentorial sinus and the
marginal sinus, which circle the foramen magnum. The suprainial region is generally different in children in
respect to adults. We centered our study on this point, establishing a hypothesis.
In all mammalians, the bifurcation of the sagital sinus gives origin to the laterals at inion level, under the
endinion and they are inseparable structures of the tentorium, of the senus rectus and of the falx brain. To our
knowledge, the evolutive modifications are due to three causes: 1) The fixation of the meninges to the bone;
2) The appearance of the suprainial occipital squama in the primates and in the hominids; 3) The structures
developped to reinforce the cranium, when its expansion stops on reaching the adult age.
The duramater fixes intensively in some points of the bone of the cranium base: a) endinion, point where
the tentorium, the falx and the sagital sinus and rectus, join; 2) contact area of the lateral sinus. In the
mammalians, the lateral sinus, in their initial portion, pass over the joint parieto-occipital, while in the
anthropomorphes and hominids, do completely over the occipital squama.
In primates, hominids and actual man, the occipital suprainial squama appears grooved in the medium line
by the extension of the interparietal sinus or sagital, and the torcula remains close to the endinion in an ancestral
position.
The print of the sagital sinus in the vertex of the occipital squama, shows the mentioned morphologies,
but in infant individuals, the grooves framed by crests are much more frequent than in adult individuals; we point
out this difference based in various facts. Our hypothesis is: that on ceasing the encephalic pressure on the skull,
when growth finishes, the cranial bone presents a progressive thickening, which does not stop in the adult age
and even persists in senility. Due to that thickening, the digital markings nearly disappear, and the sinus mark
get modified with more or less intensity, especially at the vertex of the squama level, where a larger thickening
often takes place, constituting the Felizet posterior flying buttress, which reinforces the posterior region of the
skull and follows the sagital line, finishing approximately in lambda, giving rise to that the morphology "VB",
from Campillo and Barceló, is the most frequent, and also stating that the interparietal sinusal groove, attenuates
and even disappears, near the vertex of the squama, and often reappears about 10 mm. from the vertex on
approximating the endinion.
We verified these variations in the anthropomorphes, revising the published descriptions about Austraolopithecus,
Homo habilis, erectus and sapiens fosilis, and despite the sample of the fosil register is scarce to evaluate these
aspects, we do not observe any differences to the mentioned patterns.

31
 CAMPILLO, D.

2.5
O

••"‘
2,0 .o•
,
f.
"e•
\
1.5 •
O
Fig. 1. Aumento y disminución en relación
con la edad de las impresiones digitatae, según
•
las series de Maculay y las deDavidoff. (to-
1.0
o mado de Shapiro y Janzen, 1960).

0.5

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ' 13 14'
MEAR OF LIFE

Hg. 2. Esquema de la facies interna de la squama occipitalis, mostrando los distintos sectores en que la dividimos
(Campillo y Barceló, 1988): V, área que comprende el vertex de la squama, con los subsectores: SEC-1, situada
a 15 mm del vértice se estudia en la fig. 3 y SEC-2, situada a 30 mm del vértice se estudia en las figs. 4 a 7;
H, área que comprende el endinión, en cuya proximidad se implanta la confluens sinuurn; T, endinión, que en
ocasiones, comprende o se ve substituido, por la fosa torcular T'; I, lugar que ocupa la cresta o el surco sagital
infra-endiniano, que en algunos casos se ve substituido por la fosa vermiana I'. (Dibujo, A. Bregante).

32
 INFLUENCIA DE LOS SINOS VENOSOS DE LA MIME MATER ENCEPHALI EN LA MORFOLOGÍA DE...

VA VB VC

S E C-1

1
1 1

2 2 2

H
D
CC

cm.
3

Fig. 3. Los tres tipos de vértice constatados, VA, VB y VC con sus variedades, según la silueta de la sección a
15 mm del vértice. R= lado derecho; a, b y c, forma en que se acomoda el seno sagital (S) según las distintas
tipologías; H = hueso, D = duramadre y C= corteza cerebral. (Dibujo, A. Bregante).

HD-0 HC-1 o 3 cm.

Fig. 4.Variedad del área H, con el endinión POI,
con ausencia de crestas o surcos relacionables con
los senos venosos.
Fig. 5. Área H formada solamente por crestas
óseas en relacionadas con los senos: POI,
endinión; CS, cresta sagital supra-endoiniana;
CLD, cresta lateral derecha; CLI, cresta lateral
izquierda.

33
 CAMPILLO, D.

0 3 cm.

HS-1 HS-2

HS-3 HS-4

Fig. 6.Variedades del área H, con-

formada por surcos: POI, endinión;
HS-5 HS-6 SS, surco sagital supra-endoiniano;
SLD, surco lateral derecho; SLI, sur-
co lateral izquierdo.

HM-1 HM-2 HM-3

HM-4 HM-5 HM-6

SLD

Fig. 7. Variedades del

área H, conformada
por surcos y crestas:
POI, endinión; SS, HM-7 HM-8 HM-9
surco sagital; CS, cresta
-e- SS CS
sagital; SLD, surco la-
teral derecho; CSD,
cresta sagital derecha;
SLI, surco lateral iz-
quierdo; CLI, cresta la-
POI
teral izquierda.

34
 INFLUENCIA DE LOS SINOS VENOSOS DE LA DURAS MATER ENCEPHALI EN LA MORFOLOGÍA DE...

Fig. 8. Los arbotantes de Felizet.

ti

.)

Fig. 9.Variedades morfológicas angiográficas de los senos de la duramadre en la región occipital, según Hollinshead
(1961).

35
 CAMPILLO, D.

M
Hg. 10. Esquema de un seno sagital
que se continuasin interrupción con
el lateral derecho. Las secciones a, b y
c, muestran corno la presta opuesta al
sentido de giro es más elevada, en el
caso representado la izquierda (IZQ).
DER= lado derecho

7/

Hg. 11. En punteado, áreas en donde la duramadre se Fig. 12. Sección ósea transversal, con las variedades
adhiere con más intensidad al hueso craneal, según Walker morfológicas a nivel de la sutura parieto-parietal
(1933). que contacta con el seno sagital.

36
 INFLUENCIA DE LOS SINUS VENOSUS DE LA DURAE MATEE ENCEPHALI EN LA MORFOLOGÍA DE...

Fig. 13. Senos sigmoideos en un gorila

macho.

Hg. 14. Senos laterales en un chimpancé joven.

Fig. 15. El surco del seno sagital en la región parieto-

occipital en un niño de 8 años de sexo masculino. L=
lambda.

Hg. 16. El surco del seno sagital en la re-

gión parieto-occipital en un niño de 5 años.
L= lambda.

37