A 60-year-old man presented with a well demarcated radiolucency in the posterior border of the left ascending ramus of the mandible, lying below the neck of the condyle. This area appeared to have the characteristic features of a bone cavity as previously described by Stafne. Although such cavities are now frequently recognized and generally accepted to represent entrapment of the submandibular, or more rarely sublingual, salivary gland tissues; Stafne (1942) only described their location as being, 'situated below the mandibular canal in the region as far forward from the angle as the third molar'. Developmental bone cavities have not been reported previously in the region of the ascending ramus of mandible, nor in relation to the parotid salivary gland. In the case described the radiolucency in the ramus appeared to be developmental in origin and was later shown by sialography, to be closely related to salivary gland tissues of the parotid gland.