[3] If the suture is not present at birth because both frontal bones have fused (craniosynostosis), it will cause a keel-shaped deformity of the skull called trigonocephaly.

Its presence in a fetal skull, along with other cranial sutures and fontanelles, provides a malleability to the skull that can facilitate movement of the head through the cervical canal and vagina during delivery.

[4] The suture can either bisect the frontal bone and run from nasion to bregma or persist as a partial metopic suture (see image of frontal bone)[5] (where part of the suture survives and is connected to either bregma or nasion) or as an isolated metopic fissure.

Persistent frontal sutures are of no clinical significance, although they can be mistaken for cranial fractures.

[5]As persistent frontal sutures are visible in radiographs, they can be useful for the forensic identification of human skeletal remains.