During development, bones of the skull base ossify in cartilage (i.e. endochondral ossification). They include the basioccipital, basisphenoid, petrous temporal and ethmoid bones. The skeletal capsules that house and protect the special sense organs also contribute to the skull base: the olfactory capsule contributes to the ethmoid bone, the optic capsule to the sphenoid bone and the otic capsule to the petrous temporal bone.

The remaining bones of the skull vault are flat plates and ossify in membrane (i.e. intramembranous ossification) as ‘dermal’ or ‘membranous’ bones. These connect to each other via sutures and include the occipital, parietal, squamous temporal, and frontal bones.