Post-ex 8: Ossicles

After some comments last week on my stapes blip, I thought I'd photograph the incus and malleus to complete the set :)

As I explained before, these are the tiny ossicles in the ear (the right ear, 'ere) which transfer sound vibrations from the ear-drum to the cochlea.

The malleus (hammer) is the club-shaped bone on the right, the incus (anvil) articulates with the head of the malleus, then the lower spur articulates with the stapes from last week's blip.

It is rare to recover these, but when I said I had excavated them, it was only from the ear canal of a skull as I cleaned the mud out, rather than spotting them as I was excavating the grave!
My eyes are not that good :)