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The interactive dog atlas · Skeleton · Head

Zygomatic bone os zygomaticum

The zygomatic bone is the cheekbone, below the eye: the front part of the arch you can feel under the skin.

Open in the interactive atlas Guide: Skeleton Worksheet

Educational material, not a diagnostic tool. Written by the Mantrailing România team from veterinary sources we read. Updated 14.11.2026.

Dog in left lateral view — exterior, muscles, skeleton and organs Vector study after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates: a standing dog, head to the left, deep chest and digitigrade limbs. The four layers use the same contour: exterior with body regions, superficial muscles, skeleton and organs.
  1. Zygomatic bone
  2. Zygomatic arch
  3. Orbit
  4. Maxilla
  5. Temporal bone
Zygomatic bone on the atlas drawing, "Skeleton" layer, with the neighbouring structures. Left lateral view, after the Ellenberger, Baum and Dittrich plates.

Where it is

The cheekbone, below the orbit; the front part of the zygomatic arch.

System
Axial skeleton
Region
Head

What it is and what it does

The zygomatic bone, also called the malar, is a flat bone of the face that forms the lateroventral edge of the orbit and the front part of the zygomatic arch; its temporal process joins the zygomatic process of the temporal bone. In the dog, the zygomatic process is very long and strongly curved, and the frontal process, to which the orbital ligament attaches, completes the orbit, which is open laterally in carnivores.

Worth remembering

The zygomatic arch in the atlas is made of this bone and of the temporal bone.

Names

  • Also called: malar bone.
  • Latin term: os zygomaticum.
  • In Romanian: Osul zigomatic (Romanian page).

Guides it appears in

From the same region: Head

All structures, in the atlas · Flashcards: skeleton