The skull is a bony structure in the head of many animals that supports the structures of the face and forms a cavity for the brain.

SKULL WEB SEARCH ENGINE

The skull is composed of two parts: the cranium and the mandible. A skull without a mandible is only a cranium. Animals that have skulls are called craniates. The skull is a part of the skeleton.

Functions of the skull include protection of the brain, fixing the distance between the eyes to allow stereoscopic vision, and fixing the position of the ears to help the brain use auditory cues to judge direction and distance of sounds. In some animals, the skull also has a defensive function (e.g. horned ungulates); the frontal bone is where horns are mounted.

The English word «skull» is probably derived from Old Norse «skalli» meaning bald, while the Latin word cranium comes from the Greek root (kranion).

The skull is made of flat bones.

Skull symbolism is the attachment of symbolic meaning to the human skull. The most common symbolic use of the skull is as a representation of death and mortality, but has changed with modern times as in clothing most skulls are designed for fashion rather than the historical symbolism.

Humans can often recognize the buried fragments of an only partially revealed cranium even when other bones may look like shards of stone. The human brain has a specific region for recognizing faces,[1] and is so attuned to finding them that it can see faces in a few dots and lines or punctuation marks; the human brain cannot separate the image of the human skull from the familiar human face. Because of this, both the death and the now past life of the skull are symbolized.

Moreover, a human skull with its large eye sockets displays a degree of neoteny, which humans often find visually appealing