H D Otto
Preauricular appendages are usually considered deriving from excessively growing or supernumerary auricular hillocks at the border of the first cleft. However, the hypothesis being presented here deduces their origin from hyoidal ectodermal cells which differ from their mandibular host-tissue by a specific genetic potency, effecting the formation of extodermal proliferations. The separation of these germs from the hyoidal ectoderm and their fastening to the mandibular ectoderm happen during the closure of the first cleft, when the hyo-mandibular connecting lamina is regressing during the first half of the 6th week of pregnancy...
1979: Archives of Oto-rhino-laryngology