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The ossicles (also called auditory ossicles) are three irregular bones in the middle ear of humans and other mammals, and are among the smallest bones in the human body. . Although the term "ossicle" literally means "tiny bone" (from Latin ossiculum) and may refer to any small bone throughout the body, it typically refers specifically to the malleus, incus and stapes ("hammer, anvil, and ...
The middle ear contains three tiny bones known as the ossicles: malleus, incus, and stapes. The ossicles were given their Latin names for their distinctive shapes; they are also referred to as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, respectively. The ossicles directly couple sound energy from the eardrum to the oval window of the cochlea.
The ossicles act as the mechanical analog of an electrical transformer, matching the mechanical impedance of vibrations in air to vibrations in the liquid of the cochlea. The net effect of this impedance matching is to greatly increase the overall sensitivity and upper frequency limits of mammalian hearing, as compared to reptilian hearing.
The ossicles are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup). The stapes is the smallest named bone in the body. The middle ear also connects to the upper throat at the nasopharynx via the pharyngeal opening of the Eustachian tube. [3] [11] The three ossicles transmit sound from the outer ear to the inner ear.
When an ossicle becomes redundant, specialised cells known as phagocytes are able to reabsorb the calcareous material. [1] All the ossicles, even those that protrude from the body wall, are covered by a thin layer of epidermis but functionally they act more like an exoskeleton than an endoskeleton. [2]
The middle ear consists of a space spanned by three small bones called the ossicles. The three ossicles are the malleus, incus, and stapes, which are Latin names that roughly translate to hammer, anvil, and stirrup. The malleus is attached to the tympanic membrane and articulates with the incus.
The stapes (stirrup) ossicle bone of the middle ear transmits vibrations to the fenestra ovalis (oval window) on the outside of the cochlea, which vibrates the perilymph in the vestibular duct (upper chamber of the cochlea). The ossicles are essential for efficient coupling of sound waves into the cochlea, since the cochlea environment is a ...
The ossicles may bear external projections in the form of spines, granules or warts and they are supported by a tough epidermis. Skeletal elements are sometimes deployed in specialized ways, such as the chewing organ called " Aristotle's lantern " in sea urchins, the supportive stalks of crinoids, and the structural "lime ring" of sea cucumbers.