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The infratemporal fenestra, also called the lateral temporal fenestra or lower temporal fenestra, is the lower of the two and is exposed primarily in lateral (side) view. Temporal fenestrae in relation to the other skull openings in the dinosaur Massospondylus , a type of diapsid .
The lower temporal bar forms the lower border of the infratemporal fenestra, one of two holes in the side of the head and a hallmark of a diapsidan skull. However, many diapsids, including modern squamates (lizards and snakes), have lost the lower temporal bar. [7]
It contains superficial muscles, including the lower part of the temporalis muscle, the lateral pterygoid muscle, and the medial pterygoid muscle. It also contains important blood vessels such as the middle meningeal artery , the pterygoid plexus , and the retromandibular vein , and nerves such as the mandibular nerve (CN V 3 ) and its branches.
As with other diapsids, Turfanosuchus had a pair of openings at the rear portion of the skull known as temporal fenestra. The bone separating the two holes, the squamosal, had a lower branch which curved forwards to contact the jugal and divide the lower temporal fenestra into two separate holes, leaving three holes at the back of the skull in ...
The lower temporal fenestra, usually present as a hole in the back of the skull of choristoderes, is closed by bone in Philydrosaurus. The eye sockets are large and spaced close together, similar to Monjurosuchus and Lazarussuchus .
It bears a prominent antorbital fenestra, like most archosauriforms. In some specimens, the jugal and quadratojugal contact to complete the ventral margin of the lower temporal fenestra , as in other archosauriforms, but in other specimens, there is a narrow gap between the bones so that the lower temporal bar is incomplete as in non ...
It is now commonly believed that euryapsids (particularly sauropterygians) are in fact diapsids (which have two fenestrae behind the orbit) that lost the lower temporal fenestra. Euryapsids are usually considered entirely extinct, although turtles might be part of the sauropterygian clade [ 1 ] while other authors disagree. [ 2 ]
Skull of the basal rhynchocephalian Planocephalosaurus, which has an open lower temporal fenestra. The complete lower temporal bar (caused by the fusion of the jugal and quadtrate/quadratojugal bones of the skull) of the tuatara, often historically asserted to be a primitive feature retained from earlier reptiles, is actually a derived feature ...