A research team led by scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology scanned the skulls of Neandertals and found the small middle ear ossicles, which are important for hearing.

To their surprise, the Neanderthal ossicles are morphologically distinct from the ossicles of modern humans. Despite the differences in morphology, the function of the middle ear is largely the ...

Letter Published: 24 September 1955 Supra-sternal Ossicles in Primates other than Man: some Isolated Cases in Gorilla and Chimpanzee G. T. ASHLEY Nature 176, 608–609 (1955) Cite this article ...

This vibration moves the ossicles, transmitting sound further into the ear. Meanwhile, the Eustachian tubes are thin, mucus-lined passages that help maintain stable pressure in the middle ear.

The ossicles are arranged in a special order to perform their job. Directly behind and connected to the eardrum—which is essentially, a large collector of sound—is the hammer.

Extant mammals, by contrast, have three ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes) and one ectotympanic bone, supporting the tympanic membrane, all of which are separate from the jaw.

The ossicles are key to one way people process noise: The eardrum vibrates against these bones, which transmit the vibrations to the cochlea, a spiral-shaped structure within the inner ear.

The smallest of the ossicles is the stapes. It measures about 0.1 to 0.13 inches (2.6 to 3.4 millimeters) in length and weighs about 0.00007 to 0.00015 ounces (2 to 4.3 milligrams), according to ...

But the hole-riddled ossicles of the knobby starfish (Protoreaster nodosus) are strengthened through an unexpected internal arrangement, researchers report in the Feb. 11 Science.