SCARY!! Baby Born With Ears Under Its Chin »

Birth defects are quite common around the world, some more than
others. Every once in a while we see one that just catches our
attention and makes us think back to whether or not we’ve seen it
before. In this case, it appears to be a rare deformity that caused a
baby born with ears under its chin. The image, taken from the popular
photo site Imgur shows a newborn baby who was born with a few
cranial birth defects, such as a deformed mouth and jawline,
but more prominently the placement of the ears stands out.
The placement of the ears in this case is somewhat reminiscent of
where gills would be on an aquatic animal, or fish. Perhaps they simply
failed to migrate to the side of the head after they were formed. In
the first trimester of pregnancy, the ears form along the jaw line out
of cartilage. At some point during the second trimester the ears
typically migrate to their correct place on the side of the head. This is
the normal process that appears to have failed during the second
trimester, which resulted in the low placement of the ears as well as
the deformed jaw line. The Mayo Clinic states that by 18 weeks of
gestation, a fetus should be able to hear, as well as have fully formed
ears.
In the case of the child in this picture, it is not known if the child was
born prematurely or if it survived post-birth. Details about when and
where this child were born are still unclear, as not much information
appears to be public aside from this picture.