stapes

Medicals historians have speculated that otosclerosis—a condition in which a tiny ear bone called the stapes fuses with other parts of the ear—might have been responsible for Beethoven’s hearing loss.

That's because otosclerosis is a disease that affects the bone that surrounds the stapes.

These bones shifted slightly internally to form a middle ear together with a bone called the stapes, which was present in mammalian ancestors.

Police say on March 17 the 36-year-old Alexander threw a mug at his mother in the family home, opening a wound that required three stapes to close.

Earliest known mammalian stapes from an early cretaceous eutriconodontan mammal and implications for evolution of mammalian middle ear.