craniometry

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Measurement of the skull to determine its characteristics as related to sex, race, or body type.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The measurement of skulls; the topographical relations ascertained by such measurements.
• noun The following are the points of measurement, lines, and angles upon which craniometry is based: the alveolar point, the point at the middle of the edge of the upper jaw, between the middle two incisors (A); the asterion, the point behind the ear where the parietal, temporal, and occipital bones meet (B); the auricular point, the center of the orifice of the external auditory meatus (C); the basion, the middle point of the anterior margin of the foramen magnum, corresponding in position to D; the bregma, the point of meeting of the coronal and sagittal sutures (E); the dacryon, the point on the side of the nose where the frontal, lacrymal, and superior maxillary bones meet (F); the glabella, the point in the median line between the superciliary arches, marked by a swelling, sometimes by a depression (G); the gonion, the point at the angle of the lower jaw (H); the inion, the external occipital protuberance (I); the jugal point, the point situated at the angle which the posterior border of the frontal branch of the malar bone makes with the superior border of its zygomatic branch (J); the lambda, the point of meeting of the sagittal with the lambdoidal suture (K); the malar point, a point situated on the tubercle on the external surface of the malar bone, or, when this is wanting, the intersection of a line drawn (nearly vertically) from the external extremity of the frontomalar suture to the tubercle at the inferior angle of the malar and a line drawn nearly horizontally from the inferior border of the orbit over the malar to the superior border of the zygomatic arch (L); the maximum occipital point, or occipital point, the posterior extremity of the anteroposterior diameter of the skull measured from the glabella in front to the most distant point behind, in the neighborhood of O; the mental point, the middle point of the anterior lip of the lower border of the lower jaw (P); the metopic point, a point in the middle line between the two frontal eminences (Q); the nasion, or nasal point, the middle of the frontonasal suture at the root of the nose (R); the obelion, the part of the sagittal suture between the two parietal foramina (S); the ophryon, the middle of the supraorbital line which, drawn across the narrowest part of the forehead, separates the face from the cranium: also called the supraorbital and supranasal (T); the opisthion, the middle point of the posterior border of the foramen magnum (U); the pterion, the place where the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid bones come together (V); the stephanion, the point where the coronal suture crosses the temporal ridge (W); the subnasal point, the middle of the inferior border of the anterior nares at the base of the nasal spine: also called spinal point (X); and the supra-auricular point, the point vertically over the auricular point at the root of the zygomatic process. The following craniometrical lines are distinguished: the facial line of Camper, a line tangent to the glabella and to the anterior surface of the incisor teeth (1 1); the line of Daubenton, a line drawn through the opisthion and the projection (on the median plane of the skull) of the lower border of the orbit (2 2); the basi-alveolar line, a line drawn through the basion and alveolar point (3 3); the minimum frontal line, the shortest transverse measurement of the forehead (not shown in the figure); the naso-al-veolar line, the line passing through the nasal and alveolar points (4 4); and the nasobasilar line, the line drawn through the basion and nasal point (5 5). An alveolocondylean plane is also distinguished: it is the plane passing through the alveolar point, and tangent to the condyles, represented by the line 6 6. The following are the craniometrical angles: the basilar angle, that between the nasobasilar and basi-alveolar lines (RDA); the angle of the condyles, the angle which the plane of the occipital foramen forms with the plane of the basilar groove; the coronofacial angle of Gratiolet, the angle which the facial line of Camper forms with the plane passing through the coronal suture; the facial angle of Camper, the angle between the facial line of Camper (1 1) and the line (7 7) drawn through the auricular and subnasal points; the facial angle of Cloquet, the angle between the line drawn through the ophryon and the alveolar point and the auriculo-alveolar line (9 9)—that is, the angle TAC; the facial angle of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, the angle between the facial line of Camper and the line (10 10) drawn through the auricular point and the edge of the incisors; the facial angle of Jacquart, the angle between the line drawn through the subnasal point and the glabella and the line (7 7) drawn through the subnasal and auricular points; the frontal angle, the angle TCE, formed by lines drawn from the auricular point (C) (that is, the projection of the auricular points on the median plane) to the ophryon (T) and to the bregma (E); the metafacial angle of Serres, the angle which the pterygoid processes form with the base of the skull; the nasobasal angle of Welcker, the angle RXD, between the nasobasilar and naso-subnasal lines; the occipital angle of Broca, the angle RUD, or that between the lines drawn from the opisthion (U) to the basion and nasal points; the occipital angle of Daubenton, the angle which the line of Daubenton (2 2) makes with the line joining the basion (D) and opisthion (U); the parietal angle, the angle formed by the two lines ZS and Z′ S′ (fig. 2) drawn through the extremities of the transverse maximum or bizygomatic diameter and the maximum transverse frontal diameter (it is called positive when it opens downward, negative when the lines meet below the skull and it opens upward); the angles of Segond, angles formed between lines drawn from the basion (D) to the various other craniometrical points, the facial angle of Segond being the angle PDT, or that between the line passing through the basion (D) and mental point (P) and the line passing through the basion (D) and ophryon (T), and the cerebral angle of Segond being the angle UDT, or that between the line passing through the basion (D) and ophryon (T) and the line passing through the basion (D) and opisthion (U); the sphenoidal angle, the angle between lines drawn from the basion and nasion to a point in the median line where the sloping anterior surface of the sella turcica passes over into the horizontal surface of the olivary eminence; the symphysian angle, the angle which the profile of the symphysis of the lower jaw makes with the plane of the inferior border of the lower jaw; and the total cranial angle, the angle UCT, measuring the cranial cavity, between lines drawn from the auricular point to the ophryon and to the opisthion. The following craniometrical diameters are distinguished: the maximum anteroposterior, the distance from the glabella to the furthest point of the occipital bone (the maximum anteroposterior diameter of Welcker is the anteroposterior metopic of Broca, and is the distance from the metopic point to the furthest point behind); the maximum transverse, the greatest transverse diameter of the cranium, wherever found; and the vertical diameter, ordinarily the distance of the basion from the bregma, or, what is nearly equivalent to it, the distance from the basion to the point where the line through the basion at right angles to the alveolocondylean plane intersects the cranial vault (but sometimes the line is drawn at right angles to the plane of the foramen magnum). The following craniometrical indices are distinguished: the alveolar or basilar index, the ratio of the surface of that part of the projection of the skull on the median plane which lies in front of the basion to the surface of the whole projection, multiplied by 100; the cephalic index, or index of breadth, the ratio of the maximum transverse to the maximum anteroposterior diameter of the skull, multiplied by 100; the cephalo-orbital index, the ratio of the solid contents of the two orbits to the contents of the cranial cavity, multiplied by 100; the cephalospinal index, the ratio of the measure of the foramen magnum in square millimeters to that of the cranial cavity in cubic centimeters, multiplied by 100; the cerebral index, the ratio of the greatest transverse to the greatest anteroposterior diameter of the cranial cavity, multiplied by 100; the facial index, the ratio of the distance of the ophryon from the alveolar point to the transverse diameter measured from one zygoma to the other, multiplied by 100; the gnathic or alveolar index, the ratio of the distance between the basion and alveolar point to the distance between the basion and nasal point, multiplied by 100; the nasal index, the ratio of the maximum breadth of the anterior orifice of the nose to the distance from the nasal to the subnasal point, multiplied by 100; the orbital index, the ratio of the vertical to the transverse diameter of one of the orbits, multiplied by 100; and the vertical index, or index of height, the ratio of the vertical diameter of the skull to the maximum anteroposterior diameter, multiplied by 100.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The art or act of measuring skulls.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The practice of taking measurements of the skull.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the branch of physical anthropology dealing with the study and measurement of dry skulls after removal of its soft parts