Lion this is the last I'm going to say of this because I don't think this is productive. The Maxilla upper jaw consists of 4 major parts one of which is the hard palate. So the lack of fusion could be indicative of a cleft, of which there are two types, overt and covert. Overt and covert clefts are then sub-categorized into the types you found. However we both missed a key point of the report "The right and left sides of the upper jaw were not still fused as was not the transversal suture of the hard palate" meaning they were fused at one point
With the number of typos, and misspellings in that report I believe that he meant, "
were still not fused as was not the transversal suture of the hard palate."
I doubt he meant that the sutures were fused at one point and then somehow became un-fused. That doesn't happen. A bone or bony process can break or become fractured along a suture line (once fusion consisting of bone are present--it would not be considered to be a fracture if there is not yet bone present from the process of fusion), but the doctor would have used different terminology to describe that.
I provided links with reliable articles and diagrams to back up my statements. Did you read that the degree of dental suture fusion, including the transverse palatine suture can be used as an aid in determining age at date of death? This means by definition that the sutures are not fused in utero, but instead fuse later and at predictable ages depending on the suture.
Sutures, fused or not yet fused, and cleft palate are two different things. Several sutures are present in the area where cleft palate would occur, but cleft palate does not result from a failure of the transverse palatine suture to fuse.
The only reason that I am responding to this post is to keep facts straight to best help in identifying Princess Blue. I do not wish to argue, and aside from keeping facts straight I have no desire to prove any points.
This is our third Princess thread, and of the thousands of posts, no one has snapped back or spoken with a tone of irritability. This is one thing that has made this search work, and I would like to keep it that way. If I am mistaken about anything I have said, I will graciously apologize as I have in the past. But, for now I stand by what I said which is based on much research and Pre-Vet/Pre-Med that I completed.
Lion
