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)
Evolution is a complex process by which organisms change over time; it is a process in which traits are passed from one generation to the next (Darwin and Beer 1996:108-139). Evolutionists have tried to explain the loss of functions of different organs, for centuries. The two most prominent scientists that studied evolution were Jean-Baptist Lamarck and Charles Darwin. Lamarck’s theory of inheritance of acquired characters and Darwin’s variational evolution were the most important theories that attempted