Auricular cartilage

The cartilage of the auricula (cartilago auriculæ; cartilage of the pinna) consists of a single piece; it gives form to this part of the ear, and upon its surface are found the eminences and depressions of the auricula.

It is absent from the lobule; it is deficient, also, between the tragus and beginning of the helix, the gap being filled up by dense fibrous tissue.

At the front part of the auricula, where the helix bends upward, is a small projection of cartilage, called the spina helicis, while in the lower part of the helix the cartilage is prolonged downward as a tail-like process, the cauda helicis; this is separated from the antihelix by a fissure, the fissura antitragohelicina.

The cranial aspect of the cartilage exhibits a transverse furrow, the sulcus antihelicis transversus, which corresponds with the inferior crus of the antihelix and separates the eminentia conchæ from the eminentia triangularis. The eminentia conchæ is crossed by a vertical ridge (ponticulus), which gives attachment to the Auricularis posterior muscle. In the cartilage of the auricula are two fissures, one behind the crus helicis and another in the tragus.