Hypoglossal canal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Bone: Hypoglossal canal
Occipital bone. Inner surface.
Latin canalis nervi hypoglossi
Gray's subject #31 131
Dorlands/Elsevier c_04/12208711

The hypoglossal canal is a bony canal in the occipital bone of the skull that transmits the hypoglossal nerve from its point of entry near the medulla oblongata to its exit from the base of the skull near the jugular foramen. It lies in the epiphyseal junction between the basiocciput and the jugular process of the occipital bone.

The Hypoglossal canal has recently been used to determine the antiquity of human speech. Researchers have found that hominids who lived as long as 2 million years ago had the same size canal as that of modern day chimpanzees, meaning they were incapable of speech.[citation needed] However, archaric H. sapiens 400,000 years ago had the same size canal as that of modern humans, meaning they would have been capable of speech.[citation needed] Neanderthals also had the same size hypoglossal canal as archaic H. sapiens, which puts to rest the long lived debate over neanderthal speech.[citation needed]

[edit] Additional images

Base of the skull. Upper surface.

Median sagittal section through the occipital bone and first three cervical vertebræ.

[edit] External links



 This musculoskeletal system article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../h/y/p/Hypoglossal_canal.html"