Postsphenoid
The first ossific nuclei are those for the great wings (alisphenoids). One makes its appearance in each wing between the foramen rotundum and foramen ovale about the eighth week. The orbital plate and that part of the sphenoid which is found in the temporal fossa, as well as the lateral pterygoid plate, are ossified in membrane (Fawcett).
Soon after, the centers for the postsphenoid part of the body appear, one on either side of the sella turcica, and become blended together about the middle of fetal life.
Each medial pterygoid plate (except its hamulus) is ossified in membrane, and its center probably appears about the ninth or tenth week; the hamulus becomes chondrified during the third month, and almost at once ossifies (Fawcett).
The medial joins the lateral pterygoid plate about the sixth month.
About the fourth month a center appears for each lingula and speedily joins the rest of the bone.
The presphenoid is united to the postsphenoid about the eighth month, and at birth the sphenoid is in three pieces : a central, consisting of the body and small wings, and two lateral, each comprising a great wing and pterygoid process.
In the first year after birth the great wings and body unite, and the small wings extend inward above the anterior part of the body, and, meeting with each other in the middle line, form an elevated smooth surface, termed the jugum sphenoidale.
By the twenty-fifth year the sphenoid and occipital are completely fused.
Between the pre- and postsphenoid there are occasionally seen the remains of a canal, the canalis cranio-pharyngeus, through which, in early fetal life, the hypophyseal diverticulum of the buccal ectoderm is transmitted.
The sphenoidal sinuses are present as minute cavities at the time of birth (Onodi), but do not attain their full size until after puberty.
Read more about this topic: Ossification Of Sphenoid