The auriculotemporal nerve is commonly misrepresented in both illustrations and textual descriptions. Our 85 dissections of the nerve demonstrate that the roots of the "typical" auriculotemporal nelve do not form a tight "buttonhole" loop around the middle meningeal artery. Instead the roots outline an elongated, V-shaped interval with the roots widely separated from one another. At their junction the roots form a short trunk which immediately breaks up in line with the posterior border of the mandible into a spray of branches. The superficial temporal ramus of the auriculotemporal nexve should not be considered as the main continuation of the nerve, but merely as its largest branch. A substantial portion of the nerve makes up its two communicating rami with the facial nerve; these are the strongest and most consistent of the many peripheral communications between trigeminal and facial nerves. Common variations in configuration, branching, and relationships of the nerve are included.Many anatomy texts present stereotyped descriptions of the N . auriculotemporalis of man that frequently neglect pertinent features of its form and branching, misplace emphasis on its distribution, and actually describe and illustrate it erroneously. Our interest came about by casual observations of this nerve during a previous study of arteries of the infratemporal region (Baumel and Beard, '61).Arnold's (1851) concise, yet complete, account of the auriculotemporal nerve is the most accurate of which we are aware.