Figure 10. Schematic of coronal suture fusion influence on overall skull growth and shape.

A newborn skull is comprised of separate cranial bones separated by fibrous cranial sutures. During normal development, the skull increases in size via bony apposition along the outer edge of each cranial bone. With normal growth the skull increases in size and maintains a normocephalic shape (A,C). Upon coronal suture fusion, growth can no longer occur along the anterior aspect of the parietal bones and the posterior aspect of the frontal bones. This leads to an acrocephalic (taller relative to anterior-posterior length) (C) and/or brachycephalic (wider relative to anterior-posterior length) shape (D) due to limited anterior-posterior growth along the coronal suture with compensating vertical and transverse growth along remaining patent sutures such as the sagittal suture, the lambdoid suture and the squamosal suture. cor = coronal suture, lam = lambdoid suture, squam = squamosal suture, sag = sagittal suture.