Ear witness

Abstract

A description is given of some aspects of the normal human auricle. The physiognomy of the auricle is different for every individual which leads to the possibility of identifying people based on their auricles. Indeed this has even led to the reading of earprints similar to fingerprints, a fact not generally known amongst ENT-specialists. This highly specialized knowledge has been developed within a special branch of forensic medicine and criminology, called ‘earology’ or ‘otomorphology’. Two illustrative case histories are presented.