Lateral view of the skulls of soricids. A Chondrocranium of a fetal stage (11 mm) of Sorex araneus (reversed) (modified from DeBeer 1929). The squamosal (sq) has not yet reached the frontal bone (fr); the elements of the jaw articulation, fossa glenoidalis and caput mandibulae, are quite apart, but have begun to differentiate as a joint (cf. fig. 19–21 in DeBeer 1929). B Skull of Crocidura russula (Coll. W. Maier) with lower jaw in situ. The suture with the parietal bone is visible, but rostrally the squamosum is tightly fused with the frontale. C Skull of Sorex araneus (SMF 82598). Note the enormous size of the processus glenoideus inferior (see below). Abbreviations: fr – frontale, sq – squamosum.

 
 
  Part of: Maier W, Tröscher A, Ruf I (2022). The orbitotemporal region and the mandibular joint in the skull of shrews (Soricidae, Mammalia). Vertebrate Zoology 72: 1099-1124. https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.72.e90840