Above the ocular cavity is a bone or pair of bones called the frontals. This is a centrally located bone met anteriorly by the nasals or occasionally the prefrontal. It is bordered posteriorly by the parietal. Along the border of the frontal and parietal, or often in the center of the parietal, may be found a single round hole. It is in this small aperture that the pineal gland or third eye is located. In species lacking the eye, this pineal foramen is often absent.
There may be a temporal arch, an arch of bone created by the postorbital and squamosal bones. The lower arch, formed by an extension of the jugal with the quadrate, is not found in lizards, but does occur in the tuatara, Sphenodon, a lizard-like animal of New Zealand. In some lizards and all snakes the upper temporal arch is lacking; in these forms the squamosal bone is rudimentary or absent.
One last aspect of the skull that should be mentioned is the occipital condyle, the point where the cranium is fixed to the skull. This is a point of bone (single in lizards and the other reptiles) where the first vertebra, the atlas, attaches to the skull. It is not always at the hindmost part of the skull.