jugular foramen

The jugular foramen is a large aperture in the base of the skull. It is located behind the carotid canal and is formed in front by the petrous portion of the temporal, and behind by the occipital; it is generally larger on the right than on the left side. Every claim on this page comes from the Leumas anatomy graph and carries its source.

What the jugular foramen is

The jugular foramen is a large aperture in the base of the skull. It is located behind the carotid canal and is formed in front by the petrous portion of the temporal, and behind by the occipital; it is generally larger on the right than on the left side. The atlas records it as a bone at the organ scale in the human body.

Where the jugular foramen 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 jugular foramen connects to

The atlas records 7 typed relationships for it, across 3 kinds of connection. part of cranium and temporal bone.

Supply and innervation

This dataset asserts no arterial supply, venous drainage or innervation for the jugular foramen. 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 Posterior lacerate foramen and foramen jugulare. Searching any of those names reaches this page.

Source

Uberon multi-species anatomy ontology (Mungall et al.), CC BY 4.0. Term UBERON:0005456, version 2026-06-19, retrieved 2026-08-24. Licence: CC-BY-4.0.

• Part of: cranium and temporal bone.
• A kind of: foramen of skull.
• transports: accessory XI nerve, glossopharyngeal nerve, internal jugular vein and vagus nerve.

Questions

Where is the jugular foramen?

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 jugular foramen connect to?

Part of: cranium and temporal bone.

Is the jugular foramen 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.