Length of the styloid process of the temporal bone.

The length of 404 styloid processes of the temporal bone was measured on 246 macerated skulls from men and women aged between 26 and 93 years. The statistical distribution of the styloid processes in function of their length obviously shows the existence of two different groups. In the first one, the length is inferior or equal to 20 mm, while it is superior to this value in the second one. A length more than 30 mm that cannot be related with age is common (29%) despite its low clinical occurrence. To explain the existence of short and long styloid processes, a variable involvement of the different segments of the Reichert's cartilage during the morphogenesis is suggested.