Hypoglossal canal
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| 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. Reseachers 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. 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. Neanderthals also had the same size hypoglossal canal as archaric H. sapiens, which puts to rest the long lived debate over neanderthal speech.
[edit] Additional images
Base of the skull. Upper surface. |
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