earbone

noun

noun

Etymology From ear + bone.

Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences Any bone in the ear.

This earbone criterion may seem esoteric — until we learn that the evolution of that bone structure is related to the development of a single lower jaw, which in turn, is associated with the fact that mammals, unlike, say, lizards, have differentiated teeth that allow for different kinds of chewing.2009 May 15, Edward Rothstein, “Come Meet Your Folks: Warm Blood Is Required”, in New York Times:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.