Abstract
The central portion of the skull base from the posterior part of the sella turcica to the foramen magnum was first named “clivus” by Johannes Blumenbach. This is a purely morphological description; the formation is ontogenetically heterogenous. The part of the skull base termed “clivus” develops as the body of the sphenoid bone fuses with parts of the occipital bone (basioccipital bone). Until the onset of puberty, these bones are separated by a synchondrosis, so the relatively homogeneous aspect only develops at an adult stage. However, the first problems relating to this morphological description arise as soon as one attempts to delineate the surrounding structures.
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© 1992 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Samii, M., Knosp, E. (1992). Introduction: The Clivus. In: Approaches to the Clivus. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76614-5_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-76614-5_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-76616-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-76614-5
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