The separation of the auditory ossicles from the jaw—which Mao and Meng have apparently captured a snapshot of with Origolestes—was so valuable that it served as a nexus for mammalian evolution.

The vertebrate ear is a remarkable structure. Tightly encapsulated within the densest bone of the skeleton, it comprises the smallest elements of the vertebrate skeleton (auditory ossicles) and ...

The transference of post-dentary jaw elements to the cranium of mammals as auditory ossicles is one of the central topics in evolutionary biology of vertebrates. Homologies of these bones among ...

Image Credit: ivector/Shutterstock.com. The anatomy of the ear. The staples (stirrup) is the smallest bone in the human body and the last of the three auditory ossicles, the other two being the ...

The auditory ossicles of the middle ear – the malleus, incus and stapes – are the tiniest bones in the human body. All three can fit on a dime, with room to spare.

They analyzed several auditory ossicles representing the early hominin species Paranthropus robustus and Australopithecus africanus. The new study includes the oldest complete ossicular chain ...

image: This is a 3-D reconstruction of the auditory ossicle of a two-year-old Neanderthal. view more Credit: UPV/EHU. The Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) inhabited Europe and parts of western ...

Close-ups of the jaw and auditory ossicles of Liaoconodon (bottom image a SEM of the right side). From supplement to Meng et al., 2011. This finding was not unexpected.

Fast forward a couple dozen million years and the younger fossil, F. chowi, displays auditory ossicles similar to the ones found in our ears today. These two fossils together provide an amazing ...

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.

The vertebrate ear is a remarkable structure. Tightly encapsulated within the densest bone of the skeleton, it comprises the smallest elements of the vertebrate skeleton (auditory ossicles) and ...