a. (sb.) Anat. and Zool. [f. TYMPAN-UM + -AL. So F. and Pg. tympanal.] = TYMPANIC 1.
18229. Good, Study Med. (ed. 3), IV. 273. An impeded motion of the air in the tympanal cavity.
1875. Sir W. Turner, in Encycl. Brit., I. 806/2. Alexander Achillini of Bologna the first who described the two tympanal bones, termed malleus and incus.
1887. Amer. Naturalist, XXI. 579. The only organs [in insects] which might be interpreted as answering functionally to an ear are the so-called tympanal organs of Orthoptera.
B. sb. A tympanal or tympanic bone.
1875. C. C. Blake, Zool., 202. The upper jaw is represented by the vomer, the palatines, and the tympanals.
1883. Science, I. 506/2. The tympanal is a horseshoe-like bone.