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Goose bumps are an example of a vestigial human reaction to stress. The formation of goose bumps in humans under stress is a vestigial reflex; a possible function in the distant evolutionary ancestors of humanity was to raise the body's hair, making the ancestor appear larger and scaring off predators.
In humans, the vermiform appendix is sometimes called a vestigial structure as it has lost much of its ancestral digestive function.. Vestigiality is the retention, during the process of evolution, of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. [1]
This phenomenon is an automatic-response mechanism that activates even before a human becomes consciously aware that a startling, unexpected or unknown sound has been "heard". [2] That this vestigial response occurs even before becoming consciously aware of a startling noise would explain why the function of ear-perking had evolved in animals.
What makes a human body structure vestigial is that presently it is useless or almost useless, i.e. having no important function. Greensburger ( talk ) 16:49, 1 September 2011 (UTC) [ reply ] The references you listed do not backup your statements, they mention mainly the appendix, and a few other structures.
The young Robert Ernst Eduard Wiedersheim, probably in early 1874 by Alfredo Noack in Genoa. [1]Robert Ernst Eduard Wiedersheim (21 April 1848 – 12 July 1923) was a German anatomist who is famous for publishing a list of 86 "vestigial organs" in his book The Structure of Man: An Index to His Past History.
Pharyngeal clefts resembling gill slits are transiently present during the embryonic stages of tetrapod development. The presence of pharyngeal arches and clefts in the neck of the developing human embryo famously led Ernst Haeckel to postulate that " ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny "; this hypothesis, while false, contains elements of truth ...
This suggests that the grasping reflex is vestigial in humans and in other non-fur carrying primates. [11] The reflex is also suggested to create a basis for which the voluntary grasping action originates. This comes from the maturation of higher motor centers, allowing a child to exert more control over the body. [2]
In elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) the spiracle bears a small pseudobranch that resembles a gill in structure, but only receives blood already oxygenated by the true gills. [7] The function of the pseudobranch is unknown, but it is believed that it supplies highly oxygenated blood to the optic choroid and retina and may have baroreceptor ...