Real human medical skull showing persistent metopic suture

This is an interesting item. This is a nice example of a medically prepared real human skull dating to the first half of the 20th Century. What makes this very unusual is that it shows a persistent metopic suture on the frontal bone. Usually, this would have fused between three and nine months of age but occasionally the suture never fuses. This has a prevalence of about 4% in females and about 2% in males. 

There are only four missing teeth, although two of these are the upper ventral incisors. Interestingly, there are only 14 teeth in each jaw which would normally indicate a late teen / young adult, however the teeth that are present all show quite a high degree of wear which would seem inconsistent with a person of that age.

Overall, the bones of the skull are in very good order with no chips or cracks.