Incisive bone

In human anatomy, the incisive bone or (Latin) os incisivum is the portion of the maxilla adjacent to the incisors. It is formed from the fusion of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the jaws of many animals, usually bearing teeth, but not always. They are connected to the maxilla and the nasals. While Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was not the first one to discover incisive bone in the humans, he was the first to prove its presence across mammals. Hence, incisive bone is also known as Goethe's bone In other animals the term premaxilla is more often used to refer to the incisive bone. Yet other terms include premaxillary bone, os premaxillare, intermaxillary bone, and os intermaxillare.