Examples of stapes in the following topics:
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- The three ossicles are the malleus (also known as the hammer), the incus (the anvil), and stapes (the stirrup).
- The incus attaches the malleus to the stapes.
- In humans, the stapes is not long enough to reach the tympanum.
- Many animals (frogs, reptiles, and birds, for example) use the stapes of the middle ear to transmit vibrations to it.
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- The stapes transmits the vibrations to a thin diaphragm called the oval window, which is the outermost structure of the inner ear.
- Here, the energy from the sound wave is transferred from the stapes through the flexible oval window and to the fluid of the cochlea.
- In the human ear, sound waves cause the stapes to press against the oval window.
- The middle ear exists between the tympanic membrane (the boundary with the outer ear) and the oval window (the boundary with the inner ear) and consists of three bones: the malleus (meaning hammer), the incus (meaning anvil), and the stapes (meaning stirrup).
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- Other vertebrates possess only one middle ear bone, the stapes.
- Mammals have three: the malleus, incus, and stapes.
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- The auditory ossicles consist of six bones: two malleus bones, two incus bones, and two stapes, one of each on each side.