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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]
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.
Humans may have physical remnants of a VNO, but it is vestigial and non-functional. [ 2 ] The VNO contains the cell bodies of sensory neurons which have receptors that detect specific non-volatile (liquid) organic compounds which are conveyed to them from the environment.
The formation of goose bumps in humans under stress is considered by some to be a vestigial reflex, [4] though visible piloerection is associated with changes in skin temperature in humans. [5] The reflex of producing goose bumps is known as piloerection or the pilomotor reflex , or, more traditionally, [ 6 ] horripilation .
The postauricular reflex is a vestigial myogenic [5] muscle response in humans that acts to pull the ear upward and backward. [6] Research suggests neural circuits for auricle orienting have survived in a vestigial state for over 25 million years. It is often assumed the reflex is a vestigial Preyer reflex (also known as the pinna reflex). [7] [8]
In the human embryo, the vitelline duct, also known as the vitellointestinal duct, [1] the yolk stalk, [1] the omphaloenteric duct, [1] or the omphalomesenteric duct, [1] is a long narrow tube that joins the yolk sac to the midgut lumen of the developing fetus. [2]
The location of the muscle in a standard human body. The location first specifies a group such as head, neck, torso, upper limbs, or lower limbs, then may have more specific information. However this additional information must be describing location not function. Origin