Anatomy Guide › Head & neck
Occipital Bone
Cup the back of your head and your palm covers the occipital bone. It forms the rear wall and much of the base of the skull, and it holds one of the most important openings in the entire skeleton: the foramen magnum, the wide oval passage through which the brainstem becomes the spinal cord. Every nerve signal between your brain and your body below the neck travels through this single opening.
On either side of the foramen magnum sit the occipital condyles — two smooth, rocker-shaped surfaces that rest on the first vertebra of the neck, the atlas. This joint is what lets you nod 'yes.' The pivoting 'no' motion happens one joint lower, but the occipital condyles carry the skull's full weight through every nod, tilt, and jog of daily life.
The outer surface of the bone bears a midline bump called the external occipital protuberance, easy to feel on many people at the back of the head, with curved ridges spreading to each side where the trapezius and other neck muscles attach. Internally, the bone is grooved by large venous channels that drain blood from the brain toward the jugular veins. The visual cortex — the part of the brain that processes what you see — rests directly against the inner surface of this bone, which is why a hard blow to the back of the head can make you 'see stars.'
In Anamo, the occipital bone anchors the back of the head-region map. If a skull guess runs cold toward the face, swinging to the occipital side is often the fastest way to bracket the target.
- Contains the foramen magnum, the passage between brain and spinal cord
- Its condyles form the joint that lets you nod your head
- The brain's visual cortex rests against its inner surface
- Major neck muscles, including trapezius, attach to its outer ridges
Think you could find the occipital bone on a 3D model? Play Anamo and test yourself — every guess is color-coded by how close it lands to the mystery structure.