Pterion is the bony land mark which lies in the norma lateralis of the skull. It forms the floor of temporal fossa. It is almost H-shaped which is formed by the articulation of four bones with each other i.e. frontal, parietal, the greater wing of sphenoid and temporal bones. It is bony land mark to find out the place of anterior division of middle meningeal artery in the cranium. Here the bones are very thin which can be broken easily in the clinical process for drainage of subdural haemorrhage. It is having a great clinical significance. The study on variations of pterion is important in practice of radiologists, neurosurgeons, forensic medicine, anthropologists and forensic dentologist because, epipteric type of pterion sometimes is considered as fractured skull. 250 human adult skulls of known gender were examined on both sides. Four types of pterion were observed – sphenoparietal 65.19%, frontotemporal 15.19%, stellate 14.21% and epipteric 5.31%. The pterion is points of sutural confluence seen in the norma lateralis of the skull. The patterns of formation exhibit population based variations. These findings should be of use in surgical approaches and interventionsvia the pterion.

Keywords: Skull; Pterion; Sphenoparietal; Frontotemporal; Stellate; Epipteric.