Apical ligament of dens

Ligament of apex dentis
	Median sagittal section through the occipital bone and first three cervical vertebrae (ligament of apex dentis labeled at center left as apical odontoid ligament)
Details
Latin	Ligamentum apicis dentis
Identifiers
Dorlands; /Elsevier	l_09/12491621
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TH	{{#property:P1694}}
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FMA	{{#property:P1402}}
	Anatomical terminology [[[d:Lua error in Module:Wikidata at line 863: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).\|edit on Wikidata]]]

The ligament of apex dentis (or apical odontoid ligament) is a ligament that spans between the second cervical vertebra in the neck and the skull. It lies as a fibrous cord in the triangular interval between the alar ligaments, which extends from the tip of the odontoid process on the axis to the anterior margin of the foramen magnum, being intimately blended with the deep portion of the anterior atlantooccipital membrane and superior crus of the transverse ligament of the atlas.

It is regarded as a rudimentary intervertebral fibrocartilage, and in it traces of the notochord may persist.

References

This article incorporates text in the public domain from the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)

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