The side-of-skull bones

What it does

The two parietal bones meet along the top of your head and make up most of the roof of the skull. They protect the parietal lobes of the brain, which handle touch and your sense of where your body is in space. Wavy seams called sutures lock them to their neighbours.

Why it matters

The flexible gaps between skull bones let a baby's head squeeze through the birth canal and leave room for the brain to more than double in size in the first years of life.

Nearby

• The forehead bone
• The back-of-skull bone
• The temple bone
• The parietal lobe

Read more

• Parietal bones — Wikipedia