The crista galli (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

: "crest of the

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

") is the upper part of the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone of the

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

. It rises above the

cribriform plate In mammalian anatomy, the cribriform plate (Latin for lit. ''sieve-shaped''), horizontal lamina or lamina cribrosa is part of the ethmoid bone. It is received into the ethmoidal notch of the frontal bone and roofs in the nasal cavities. It supp ...

. The falx cerebri (a fold of the

dura mater In neuroanatomy, dura mater is a thick membrane made of dense irregular connective tissue that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It is the outermost of the three layers of membrane called the meninges that protect the central nervous system. ...

surrounding the

brain A brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as Visual perception, vision. I ...

) attaches to the crista galli.

Structure

The crista galli is the upper part of the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone of the

. It rises above the

. The falx cerebri (a fold of the

surrounding the

) attaches to the crista galli. The olfactory bulbs of the

olfactory nerve The olfactory nerve, also known as the first cranial nerve, cranial nerve I, or simply CN I, is a cranial nerve that contains sensory nerve fibers relating to the sense of smell. The afferent nerve fibers of the olfactory receptor neurons t ...

lie on either side of the crista galli on top of the cribriform plate.

Variation in Morphology

The base of crista galli varies in height. A retrospective study of CT data from 2007 to 2009 reviewed scans of 99 people. The results showed that in 63.6% of subjects the base extended less than 50% below the height of the

. In 28.3%, the base did not extend above the cribriform plate, while in 8.1%, the base extended more than 50% of the CG height below the top of the cribriform plate.

History

The term "crista galli" is

for "crest of the rooster".

References

External links

* * * * Bones of the head and neck {{musculoskeletal-stub