The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth.

In human anatomy, the premaxilla is referred to as the incisive bone (os incisivum) and is the part of the maxilla which bears the incisor teeth, and encompasses the anterior nasal spine and alar region.

The incisive foramen is bound anteriorly and laterally by the premaxilla and posteriorly by the palatine process of the maxilla.

[1] 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.

While Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was not the first one to discover the incisive bone in humans, he was the first to prove its presence across mammals.

In the embryo, the nasal region develops from neural crest cells which start their migration down to the face during the fourth week of gestation.

[5] The first ossification centers in the area of the future premaxilla appear during the seventh week above the germ of the second incisor on the outer surface of the nasal capsule.

[2] In the 1790s, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe began studying zoology, and formed the impression that all animals are similar, being bodies composed of vertebrae and their permutations.

The human skull is one example of a metamorphosed vertebra, and within it, the intermaxillary bone rests as evidence linking the species to other animals.