The posterior deep temporal nerve: its relationship with the human cranial base

In an earlier dry-skull study (Dias et al. [2001] Int J Osteoarchaeol 11:241-248), a hitherto undescribed groove was observed in the infratemporal region of the greater wing of the sphenoid bone in the cranial base, passing laterally from the foramen ovale onto the squamous temporal bone. We found a very high incidence of this groove, 81% on one side at least, in modern South-Asian Indian adult crania, but much less so, 50%, in a Polynesian sample of both New Zealand Maori and Moriori adult crania. This article reports our finding of the groove, at least on one side, in 85% of a modern Portuguese skeletal population, and our dissection study on twenty European cadavers confirms that the groove, present in all, is formed by the posterior deep temporal nerve.