Importance Of Vestigial Structures

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Antonio Donlucas Larios Geology 7 Tues/Thurs 9:00 AM Vestigial Structures and Evolution Vestigial Structures are organs which are degenerated, atrophied, or in imperfect condition or form (Miller). These organs are important to showing evolution since they are useless limbs that at one point in our ancestry were useful for our daily functions. As stated by the article on livescience.com, the function of those vestigial organs eventually ceases to help the host and as such just stops working (Miller). Vestigial structures help us trace evolution because they show how species in the animal kingdom have changed over time. The appendix for example is present in vertebrate herbivores, so at one point the human ancestors probably had a very herb based diet (Miller). Another example is the hind legs on whales (Miller). They show that at one point, whales were land dwelling creatures, possibly amphibious, that decided to return to the sea life. The hind legs are completely useless to the present day whale, also the appendix to humans, but it shows that at one point in our timeline our ances...

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