Question

The unpaired facial bone is
(a) Lacrimal
(b) Vomer
(c) Nasal
(d) Palatine

Answer 1

Hint: The facial skeleton has two unpaired bones. One makes the lower jaw called the mandible. The other unpaired facial bone forms the inferior part of the nasal septum. Its name in Latin means ploughshare and it has been named so because of its shape.

Complete answer:
The unpaired facial bone is vomer. The skull at birth contains 45 separated bones. With the development of the infant, these bones fuse resulting in 22 bones in an adult skull. These 22 skull bones can be divided into eight calvarial bones and 14 facial bones. The skull bones in the braincase and facial skeleton may be paired or unpaired. There are a total of 6 pairs of bones in the facial skeleton and two bones are unpaired. The paired bones are maxilla, zygomatic, nasal, lacrimal, palatine, and inferior nasal concha, while the two unpaired bones of the face are mandible and vomer.

Additional Information: -The two paired bones in the calvarium (braincase) are parietal and temporal.
-The total number of bones in the hand wrist is 30.
-The human body at birth has a total of 270 bones.
-With the fusion of bones during the development, only 206 bones remain in an adult.
So, the correct answer is, ‘vomer.’

Note: -14 facial bones together form the facial skeleton.
-A total of eight calvarial bones together form the ‘braincase’. They are sometimes counted with 6 ear ossicles to give a total count of 14 bones.
-The unpaired bones of the braincase are frontal, occipital, sphenoid, and ethmoid
-The six-ear ossicles often included in the braincase are two malleus, two incus, and 2 stapes.