Inferior nasal concha at a glance
- What it is
- A thin curved bone on the lateral wall of the nose.
- Location
- Lies below the middle concha, attached mainly to the maxilla and palatine bone, with small joints to the lacrimal bone and ethmoid.
- Function
- Increases surface area to warm, humidify and filter inspired air.
- Body system
- Skeletal · paired (left and right)
- FMA ID
- FMA54738 (Foundational Model of Anatomy)
Key facts
- It is a separate bone, not part of the ethmoid.
- It is the largest concha; the nasolacrimal duct opens into the inferior meatus beneath it.
Structures next to the inferior nasal concha
The nearest named structures in the 3D model, measured from the centre of each part:
- Nasolacrimal duct · eye & ear
- Maxilla · skeletal
- Vomer · skeletal
- Gingiva of upper jaw · digestive
- Lacrimal bone · skeletal
- Lacrimal sac · eye & ear
- Upper first secondary molar tooth · digestive
- Upper second secondary molar tooth · digestive
- Palatine bone · skeletal
- Upper second secondary premolar tooth · digestive
References
- Foundational Model of Anatomy: Inferior nasal concha (FMA54738). EMBL-EBI Ontology Lookup Service.
- OpenStax. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §7.1 Divisions of the Skeletal System. Rice University, 2022.
- Mitsuhashi N. et al. (2009). BodyParts3D: 3D structure database for anatomical concepts. Nucleic Acids Research 37, D782–D785. Data © The Database Center for Life Science, CC BY 4.0.
Related anatomy
Explore the whole body in the interactive 3D human anatomy model, or browse the A–Z list of human structures.