ABSTRACT
The pterion of 400 Chinese adult skulls, 252 males and 148 females, wasstudied. It was found that the epipteric bone was rather common. When cal-culated according to A. J. P. von Broek's classification which includes epiptericumanterius, epiptericum posterius, in addition to the most common epiptericumtypicum, the frequency was 42% in terms of number of skulls ed 27% interms of number of sides. The fronto-temporal suture type, however, was smallin number (3.0% in terms of the number of skulls and 1.75% in terms of thenumber of sides), due to the presence of a frontal process of the temporalbone. Both the epipteric bone and the fronto-temporal suture were found to bemore common in the female than in the male. Various theories regarding theorigin of these alterations are introduced and discussed.