How many bones are there in the human skull?

• A. 8
• B. 14
• C. 22
• D. 26

Answer: (C)

Twenty-two bones form the skull: eight cranial bones that encase the brain and fourteen facial bones that shape the face. The cranial set includes the frontal bone, two parietal bones, two temporal bones, the occipital bone, the sphenoid, and the ethmoid. The facial set includes two nasal bones, two maxillae, two zygomatic bones, two lacrimal bones, two palatine bones, two inferior nasal conchae, the vomer, and the mandible. The tiny auditory bones in the middle ears sit inside the skull but aren’t counted with the skull bones in the standard total, which is why the typical answer is twenty-two rather than eight, fourteen, or twenty-six.