Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The temporal bones are situated at the sides and base of the skull, and lateral to the temporal lobes of the cerebrum. The temporal bone supports that part of the face known as the temple. The structure of the squama is like that of the other cranial bones: the mastoid portion is spongy, and the petrous portion dense and hard. The squamosal bone, which is homologous with the squama, and forms the side of the cranium in many bony fish and tetrapods. Primitively, it is a flattened plate-like bone, but in many animals it is narrower in form, for example, where it forms the boundary between the two temporal fenestrae of diapsid reptiles.