Imaging of postnatal maturation of the skull base.

The skull begins to form when mesenchyme thickens and condenses around the developing brain. At the skull base, most of this mesenchyme derives from neural crest, and some arises from general head mesenchyme. This article reviews the patterns for maturation of the ossification, sutures, and synchondroses in the occipital, the sphenoid, and the orbitoseptal regions, and reports additional data derived from specific study of CT scans of the skull base in children and young adults.