Middle ear ossicles

There are three tiny articulating bones in the middle ear known as ossicles (from lateral to medial):

• malleus
• incus
• stapes

Their role is to mechanically amplify the vibrations of the tympanic membrane and transmit them to the cochlea where they can be interpreted as sound. They are located in the middle ear cavity and articulate with each other via two tiny synovial joints. The stapes also articulates with the oval window via the stapediovestibular joint, which is a syndesmosis ³; this joint transmits the ossicular vibrations to the endolymph in the vestibule.

Interestingly, they are the only bones in the body that do not grow after birth, and are also the smallest bones in the body (variant tiny sesamoids aside).