Ear between the outer ear and the inner ear. It consists of an air-filled cavity called the tympanic cavity and includes the three ossicles and their attaching ligaments; the auditory tube; and the round and oval windows. The ossicles are three small bones that function together to receive, amplify, and transmit the sound from the eardrum to the inner ear. The ossicles are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup). The stapes is the smallest named bone in the body. The middle ear also connects to the upper throat at the nasopharynx via the pharyngeal opening of the Eustachian
Vestibule of the ear Vestibule of the ear The vestibule is the central part of the bony labyrinth in the inner ear, and is situated medial to the eardrum (tympanic cavity), behind the cochlea, and in front of the three semicircular canals. The name comes from the Latin "vestibulum", literally an entrance hall. The vestibule is somewhat oval in shape, but flattened transversely; it measures about 5 mm from front to back, the same from top to bottom, and about 3 mm across. In its lateral or tympanic wall is the oval window (fenestra vestibuli), closed, in the fresh state, by the base of