What's the Smallest Bone in Your Body?

The smallest bone in your body is located in your ear. This bone is called the stapes (also known as the stirrup), it’s approximately 0.25 to 0.33cm long. It is a tiny U-shaped bone that passes vibrations form the stirrup to the cochlea. There are three tiny bones that connect to form the middle ear to pass vibrations; malleus, incus, and stapes. These tiny bones are called ossicles. Because of their unique shapes they are known as the hammer (malleus), the anvil (incus), and the stirrup (stapes). All three of these bones together are the size of a pea. You are probably wondering why I know this information?! I was born with a birth defect in my left ear. My stapes (aka stirrup) didn’t form fast to the other two bones that form the middle ear. Mine is barely attached. This caused me to have a significant amount of hearing lose as I got a little older. By the time I was in 3rd grade I had o wear a hearing aid. I still do to this day. Doctors at Geisinger Children’s Hospital in Pa said that they could re-attach the bone completely but this would be pointless since it wouldn’t change my hearing loss. My parents decided against it. The coolest part of my birth defect is that pictures of my ear are in multiple texts books. I would like to think that my ear is famous since this type of middle ear birth defect is rare.