eardrum

Human eardrum
Credit: The Cleveland Clinic

Known medically as the tympanic membrane or myringa, the thin membrane that separates the outer ear from the middle ear. The eardrum vibrates in response to sound waves and transmits these vibrations via the auditory ossicles of the middle ear to the cochlea of the inner ear.

In amphibians and some reptiles, there is no outer ear and the eardrum lies at, or very close to, the surface of the skin.

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• ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
• ACOUSTICS AND MUSIC

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