jugular process

It lies in the epiphyseal junction between the basiocciput and the jugular process of the occipital bone.

The posterior border, also serrated, articulates with the inferior border of the occipital between the lateral angle and jugular process.

The skull of the African subspecies has a larger crest between the mastoid process and the jugular process of the exoccipital.

On the upper surface of the jugular process is a deep groove which curves medialward and forward and is continuous with the jugular notch.

Behind the jugular fossa is a quadrilateral area, the jugular surface, covered with cartilage in the fresh state, and articulating with the jugular process of the occipital bone.

These two portions of the inferior border are separated from one another by the jugular process, the notch on the anterior surface of which forms the posterior part of the jugular foramen.

Laterally the jugular process presents a rough quadrilateral or triangular area which is joined to the jugular surface of the temporal bone by a plate of cartilage; after the age of twenty-five this plate tends to ossify.

Extending lateralward from the posterior half of the condyle is a quadrilateral plate of bone, the jugular process, excavated in front by the jugular notch, which, in the articulated skull, forms the posterior part of the jugular foramen.

Such joints are found between the epiphyses and diaphyses of long bones, between the occipital and the sphenoid, and for some years after birth, between the petrous portion of the temporal and the jugular process of the occipital bone.

For the muscle of the eye, see Lateral rectus muscle The Rectus capitis lateralis, a short, flat muscle, arises from the upper surface of the transverse process of the atlas, and is inserted into the under surface of the jugular process of the occipital bone.

The under surface of the jugular process is rough, and gives attachment to the Rectus capitis lateralis muscle and the lateral atlanto-occipital ligament; from this surface an eminence, the paramastoid process, sometimes projects downward, and may be of sufficient length to reach, and articulate with, the transverse process of the atlas.