Diagram showing the regions of the adult face and neck related to the fronto-nasal process and the branchial arches.
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| colspan="2" |Under surface of the head of a human embryo about twenty-nine days old.
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|Latin
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|colspan="2"|[subject #13 ]
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|System
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|Precursor
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|MeSH
|colspan="2"|[A16.254.160]
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|Dorlands/Elsevier
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The first branchial arch, also called the first pharyngeal arch and mandibular arch, is the first of six branchial arches that develops in fetal life. It is located between the stomodeum and the first pharyngeal groove.
This arch divides into a maxillary process and a mandibular process, which are the bones of the middle third and lower third of the face and contain the arches of the jaws. The maxillary process becomes the maxilla, or upper jaw, and palate.
A cartilage (Meckel's cartilage) forms in the mesoderm which becomes the incus and malleus of the middle ear; the anterior ligament of the malleus and the sphenomandibular ligament. The mandible or lower jaw forms by intramembranous ossification.
The artery of the first arch is the first aortic arch, which partially persists as the maxillary artery.
The nerve associated with the first branchial arch is the trigeminal nerve (mandibular branch). Note that maxillary process also carries its own branch of the trigeminal nerve, the maxillary. The associated cartilage is Meckel's cartilage. The associated muscles are the muscles of mastication.
Derivatives of the first arch:
Ectodermal and endodermal
* mucous membrane and glands of the anterior two thirds of the tongue
