Morphological and morphometrical aspects of the auditory ossicles in goat (Capra hircus)

Abstract

The present paper deals with a detailed description of the auditory ossicles in Capra hircus. The paper focuses on the morphological and morphometrical description of the ossicular assembly, formed by malleus, incus and stapes. The malleus (overall length, as average‐ 8.16 mm) comprises the head of malleus (Caput mallei), a slightly strictured part—neck (Collum mallei) with 3 distinctive processes (lateral, rostral and muscular) (Processus lateralis, Processus rostralis and Processus muscularis) and a handle (Manubrium mallei). The head of malleus has an oval aspect with an obtuse articular surface on its medial surface (Facies articularis). The neck is evident with three bony processes described—the anterior, almost triangular, the muscular one quite reduced and the lateral one which is the most developed one. The manubrium is the longest sector—4.4 mm and appears as a slightly curved piece. The incus presents a body of 1.3 mm and two processes—the short and long crus (Crus breve and Crus longum). The overall shape of the ossicle resembles a biradicular molar. The lenticular process is a continuation of the distal part of the long crus. The stapes—the smallest in size of the three ossicles (2.7 mm), has a head (Caput stapedis), an anterior (Crus rostrale) and a caudal (Crus caudale) arm and a footplate (Basis stapedis). The two processes are slightly different in size and morphology, delimiting the intercrural space that shows the presence of a bony spicule. The footplate (1.6 mm2 area) is ellipsoidal, with an anterior narrower extremity.

Geometric and Morphometric Analysis of the Auditory Ossicles in the Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)

“…The size of the anterior and shorter lateral processes of the malleus was 2.25 ± 0.25 mm and 1.49 ± 0.11 mm, respectively [ 15 ]. The robust and curved manubrium was typical for carnivores [ 4 ], while its triangular shape in cross-section was in accordance with the results reported from the badger and goat [ 18 , 20 ].…”

“…Previous reports described the shape of the incus as similar to a biradicular molar tooth and also as an anvil with a saddle [ 4 , 9 , 15 , 18 , 20 ]. The two divergent crura differ greatly in size in the majority of carnivores and other mammals [ 9 , 18 , 29 ].…”

“…The study revealed values for several parameters of the auditory ossicles, as well as weight parameters and area measurements for the tympanic membrane, and the oval and round window. Similar morphological studies on the middle ear structures were performed on carnivores, such as wolves [ 10 ], dogs [ 16 , 17 ], badgers [ 18 ], red foxes, dogs and cats [ 4 ], on domestic and wild carnivores [ 19 ], on some herbivores, such as goats [ 20 ], sheep [ 21 ], horses [ 22 ], donkeys [ 23 , 24 ], on ruminants [ 25 ], on rodents, such as mice [ 26 ], hamsters [ 27 ], rabbits [ 9 , 28 ], chinchillas [ 29 , 30 ], and on some birds, such as ostriches [ 31 ] and chickens [ 32 ]. Geometric morphometry provides more precise information about small anatomical structures and focuses on data analysis from the position of homologous landmarks [ 33 , 34 ].…”

Morphological And Morphometrical Aspects of The Auditory Ossicles In Roe Deer (Capreolus Capreolus)

“…The footplate of the stapes varies much as far as its shape is concerned from species to species. For the roe-deer, we have observed an elliptic shape, somehow similar to the bactrian camel(Bai et al 2009;Nourinezhad et al 2021), goat(Martonos et al 2021), and chinchilla(Martonos et al 2019). In sheep, this segment is described as almost squared(Nourinezhad et al 2021).…”

“…To evaluate similarly the available data for the assessment of the lever ratio in the maleo-incal complex we have re-processed the data for sheep (Péus et al 2017), goat (Martonos et al 2021) along the ones from roe deer.The compared ratios are among the L manu-L mal, L head-L umbo (for malleus) and the incus the L sp-L lp ratio. As suggested by the comparative gures calculated based on the two distinctive sets of measurements, some interesting facts arose here.…”