Abstract: Our studies of the auricular muscles in relation to auricular form in early development, utilizing both normal and abnormal examples, indicate that these muscles exert a major role in the form and positioning of the cartilagenous pinna. Defects in the development or function of specific ear muscles may give rise to particular deformations of the auricle. For example, defect of the posterior auricular muscle, which normally draws the ear toward the calvarium, gives rise to a protruding auricle. Defect of the superior auricular muscle, which attaches from the superior auricular cartilage to the temporal region, may result in an overlapped and low-set appearing ear—the so-called "lop" ear. Finally, defect of the intrinsic musculature of the concha may result in a lack of the usual folds such as the anthelix and give rise to a so-called "simple" ear. Thus many defects of ear form constitute signs of neural and/or muscular aberration with secondary alteration in the form of the auricle, rather than being signs of a primary problem in the development of the cartilagenous external auricle itself.