exoccipital bone

Paired cartilage bone that bears a large foramen (lateral occipital foramen). Contacts the supraoccipital dorsally, the epiotic laterally and the basioccipital ventrally. Forms the posterior hind margin of the cranium and borders the lateral and posterior margins of the forum (foramen) magnum. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the exoccipital bone is

Paired cartilage bone that bears a large foramen (lateral occipital foramen). Contacts the supraoccipital dorsally, the epiotic laterally and the basioccipital ventrally. Forms the posterior hind margin of the cranium and borders the lateral and posterior margins of the forum (foramen) magnum. The atlas records it as a bone at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the exoccipital bone is

It sits in the head, within the skeletal system. Not positioned individually. Drawn inside the structure this dataset says contains it — the containment is asserted, the exact spot within it is not.

What the exoccipital bone connects to

The atlas records 13 typed relationships for it, across 4 kinds of connection. part of axial skeletal system, craniocervical region and head, and 3 more.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the exoccipital bone. Only a minority of structures carry those edges here, so an empty answer means nothing has been recorded — not that there is nothing to record.

Also called

Also recorded as exoccipital, exoccipitals, lateral part of occipital bone, pars lateralis ossis occipitalis and pars lateralis. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0001693, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: axial skeletal system, craniocervical region, head, neurocranium, occipital region and subdivision of skeletal system.
• A kind of: bone element, cranial bone, endochondral bone, skeletal element and subdivision of skeletal system.
• composed of: bone tissue.
• contains: occipital condyle.

Questions

Where is the exoccipital bone?

It sits in the head, within the skeletal system. Not positioned individually. Drawn inside the structure this dataset says contains it — the containment is asserted, the exact spot within it is not.

What does the exoccipital bone connect to?

Part of: axial skeletal system, craniocervical region, head, neurocranium, occipital region and subdivision of skeletal system.

Is the exoccipital bone the same in other species?

Leumas holds the same relationship vocabulary for every species it carries, so where another dataset records this structure you can put the two side by side on /compare.