This paper reports the cumulative efforts over the past decade at understanding the origin of cranial sutural morphology. Often, we describe events in the biology of morphogenesis: what happens, where, and when. Rarely can we answer questions of proximate causality such as how the morphology is attained and maintained, and even more difficult are the questions on ultimate causality such as why is the form this way or that way. We present in this short communication a theoretical model based on force-dependent antagonistic balancing that captures the two essential characteristics of cranial suture morphology: complex wave form and constant sutural width. This model incorporates the following elements: diffusion reaction, antagonistic coupling, finite element analysis (FEA), and force-induced spontaneous alternating reciprocity. The analysis and partial biological verification across temporal and spatial scales are provided.
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