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Auricle
Last reviewed: 07.07.2025
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The auricle (auricula) is basically a complex-shaped elastic cartilage (cartilago auriculae), covered with skin tightly adjacent to the cartilage. In the lower part of the auricle there is no cartilage. Instead, there is a skin fold with fatty tissue inside - the auricular lobule (lobulus auriculae) - the lobe. The free edge of the auricle is folded, forming a curl (helix), which in the front part of the auricle above the external auditory canal ends in the form of a crus of the curl (crus helicis). On the inner side of the curl, in its posterior-upper part, there is a not always clearly defined protrusion - the tubercle of the auricle (tuberculum auriculae; Darwin's tubercle). Parallel to the curl on the inner side of the auricle is an elevation - the antihelix. In front of the auditory canal there is a protrusion - the tragus. Opposite it, in the lower part of the antihelix, the antitragus is visible. Between the tragus in front and the lower part of the antihelix at the back there is a depression - the cavity of the concha (cavitas conchae), continuing into the external auditory canal. The size and shape of the auricle are individual.
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