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Ileum, caecum and colon of rabbit, showing Appendix vermiformis on fully functional caecum The human vermiform appendix on the vestigial caecum. The appendix was once believed to be a vestige of a redundant organ that in ancestral species had digestive functions, much as it still does in extant species in which intestinal flora hydrolyze cellulose and similar indigestible plant materials. [10]
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]
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.
Vestigial structures are anatomical structures of organisms in a species which are considered to have lost much or all of their original function through evolution. [8] These body parts can be classed as additional to the required functioning of the body. In human anatomy, the vermiform appendix is sometimes classed as a vestigial remnant.
The existence of vestigial organs can be explained in terms of changes in the environment or modes of life of the species. Those organs are typically functional in the ancestral species but are now either semi-functional, nonfunctional, or re-purposed. Scientific literature concerning vestigial structures abounds.
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The theory of animal-to-human transplants, known as xenotransplantation, dates back hundreds of years. Only recently, though, has that goal appeared to be within reach. Only recently, though, has ...
The human body consists of biological systems, that consist of organs, that consist of tissues, that consist of cells and connective tissue. The history of anatomy has been characterized, over a long period of time, by a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures in the body.