Thearticular bone is part of the lower jaw of mostvertebrates, including mostjawed fish,amphibians,birds and various kinds ofreptiles, as well as ancestralmammals.
In most vertebrates, the articular bone is connected to two other lower jaw bones, thesuprangular and theangular.[1] Developmentally, it originates from the embryonic mandibular cartilage. The mostcaudal portion of the mandibular cartilage ossifies to form the articular bone, while the remainder of the mandibular cartilage either remains cartilaginous or disappears.[1]
Insnakes, the articular, surangular, and prearticular bones have fused to form the compound bone. The mandible is suspended from the quadrate bone and articulates at this compound bone.[2]
In most tetrapods, the articular bone forms the lower portion of the jaw joint. The upper jaw articulates at thequadrate bone.[3]
Inmammals, the articular bone evolves to form themalleus, one of the mammalianossicles of the middle ear. This is anapomorphy of the mammalian clade,[4] and is used to determine the fossil transition to mammals.[5] It isanalogous to, but nothomologous to thearticular process of thelower jaw.
After the loss of the quadrate-articular joint, the squamosal and dentary bones form the new jaw joint in mammals.[6]
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