Best answer: D

Reasoning: Meckel’s cartilage (the cartilage of the first pharyngeal arch) forms the malleus and incus, whereas the stapes is derived from Reichert’s cartilage of the second arch; the zygomatic bone arises by intramembranous ossification in the maxillary prominence but is not an ossicular derivative. Thus, among the three ear ossicles listed, the stapes is the only one not formed from Meckel’s cartilage [Louryan, 1993, PMID 8241574; Whyte et al., 2009, PMID 18803631].