Presence of Wormian Bones - A Medico-legal Perspective

Small additional ossicles, known as Wormian Bones are frequently found in the lambdoid suture, as also in many others in the adult human skulls. They are due to accessory centres of ossification occuring where the normal centres have failed to meet and form a normal suture1.

In this present work, 50 dry adult human dry skulls have been studied during the routine under graduate (MBBS 1st and BDS 1st Year) osteology demonstration classes to find out the sutural bones at and around the sutures. Wormian bones were observed at lambda, bregma, lambdoid suture, asterion and sagittal suture in 28 skulls (out of 50). The results were compared with the other studies to provide data to the radiologists, the clinicians (neurosurgeons) and the forensic experts (medicolegal purpose) for reference.