I've been looking for a complete list like this for a while. It's a good summary of what evolution hasn't finished getting rid of on humans yet.

http://www.decimation.com/markw/2007/07/09/what-evolution-left-behind-on-humans/

Some of these are kind of neat.

They already took my appendix and my wisdom teeth.

But I'll be damned if I let them have my toes.

Isn't it true that Evolution is always forward progress? Seems like we lost some abilities due to it.

I know.

Those extra chest muscles could have helped me FLEX more.

Evolution takes the traits we use and amplifies them while taking the ones we don't use and phases them out. It's not so much that we lost the abilities, but that we no longer needed or used them so they are slowly being taken away. If we were suddenly to need things like a more sensitive sense of smell or hearing, some of those traits may start becoming more prevalent in each generation.

No, that's somewhat like the old Victorian ideal about it, generally speaking it leads to a species being better adapted to its environment or circumstances (or better adapted towards sexual selection). The abilities we've lost weren't particularly useful to us. Hair loss was beneficial for thermoregulation for us back when we were evolving in Africa, we've simply retained the ability to get goosebumps. Some of the examples like the coccyx aren't technically totally redundant either. Supposedly the coccyx is an anchoring point for a few muscles in that region, you probably need it to take a dump.

"Lactiferous ducts (the lobes of the mammary gland at the tip of the nipple) form well before the the testosterone that causes a fetus to be a male occurs. Men have mammary tissue that can be simulated to produce milk."

WTF?!?

Yeah, manboobs can lactate.


Internet legend is that you can will yourself to lactate through medication or some bull****, but it apparently takes forever.

I'm pretty sure the kind of stimulation they're talking about is direct injection of prolactin.

Supposedly mechanical stimulation of the nipple promotes prolactin production but you need a functioning mammary gland. Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure it only forms in males if there is a particular hormone imbalance during puberty.

And no, there is no way of telling if you have a fully-formed mammary gland or not. Basically the only way you can tell is if you end up with a hormone balance problem like zully.

They're insane. Toes are awesome.

Right, but only if NOT having those traits prevents us from breeding (ex. through death).

That's my understanding, anyway.

If we don't need this stuff why did God put it there? I mean I know evolution is BS but why the hell did God bother with all that stuff?

For the same reason he put dinosaur bones in the ground — to test our faith LOL!

Exactly. I'm willing to bet that most of these things have a use that we just don't know about. Things don't just slowly evolve away into uselessness because we have no use for them, that's not how natural selection works.

i still grab things with my toes

Vestigal organs (not necessarily appendix but I'll use as an example) can get diminished by evolution because they require energy to develop and maintain, they also provide an additional part of the body that is prone to infection or whatever. Therefore any offspring that has a diminished appendix has an advantage because they have less risk of infection (appendicities for example) or more energy available for use on other tasks such as bigsex or runawayfromanimal.

So Obi_Kwiet, things evolving away is exactly how natural selection works.

I can wiggle my ears. Great way to attract a mate

I have palmaris muscles!

Yay anatomy class.

Hold you hand palm up and tense your wrist so that the tendons on the underside of your wrist pop up. Slowly move each of your fingers and your thumb. If there's a tendon that stays completely still when you move your fingers, that's your palmaris muscle.

Haha yeah...toes are actually really useful for complex movement other than walking.

I forget- who dies in the fifth one? Is it Sirius?

Yay I have it too!

My wisdom teeth grew in correctly, and I have an extra row of teeth to feed with.

Edit: Now that I think about it, they grew in incorrectly, but whatever.

I need to get mine looked at... one is almost all the way in!

It seems like natural selection should be extremely downplayed since humans' development of science and culture. We've developed medical knowhow, living conditions, and technologies that all help most "weaker" humans to survive through to adulthood. Compared to other animals, and compared to the past, we live in luxury, thereby increasing our chances of passing on all genes. A species isn't going to improve while living in the lap of luxury. Evolutionary progress will only take place in conditions of hardship.
The exception to this is probably developments in mental capacity. It seems like people need to know more and more to survive in today's world, so maybe from an evolutionary perspective we've switched more from physical development to mental development.

Toes are dumb

You should watch the movie "Idiocracy". The basic idea is that the intelligent people of the world breed very seldom, whereas the unintelligent have no regard for planning and vastly outbreed them, eventually leading to a society of morons. Luke wilson's character is an average guy who was frozen for a military experiment and forgotten about. When he is thawed 500 years in the future he's the smartest man on the planet.

I enjoyed Idiocracy.

Except there just isn't enough advantage there to really push it in one coherent direction, even with regular natural selection. Not even appendicitis would have enough sway over a species to cause the appendix to disappear. Besides, such minor characteristics are too likely apt to be muted be more effective traits.

I mean, I could see if it's something large, inconvenient and totally unnecessary, but most of the stuff listed on that page wasn't.

I'm going to go with the theory that it helps with the immune system during birth.

Jeeze, I use all of my toes all of the time. Granted, I do a lot of running, jumping, and strange balancing, but I wouldn't say they're unnecessary.

Is this your official fundie answer?

KA CHING!

Yay!

I getting this from an evolutionist.

Besides, that sort of attitude will never let you harness your appendix enabled super powers. Now let's see, I've just got to flex the right muscles...

Argh!!

Watch where you're aiming that thing!

Whooo for my wiggling of ears.

Oh, you mean someone who changes their viewpoint in light of new evidence instead of rebutting evidence in order to keep their archaic viewpoint?

DHAT DHER SCENCE IS FER TERRISTS!

how the heck are toes possibly obsolete? i use them all the time. i definatly use them whenever i am not wearing any shoes and most of the time even when i am... this seems a bit honkey to me...

They mean that you don't need your toes for normal movement such as walking.

A ruptured appendix can kill you. Cystadenocarcinoma of the appendix can kill you. Detty's right as in that it's just more tissue that you don't need for survival that crap can happen to. Fatal pathology is rare but it's still there, thus the selective pressure against it.

Also don't go with the immune system theory. It's in the intestinal tract, and you want to be partially blind to antigens when you are young for two reasons: a.) to not react to food and b.) to not destroy your own gut flora. If you have a strong immune response, you get things like celiac sprue (gluten insensitivity) or any of the IBD's such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's.

In other words, a thymus- or spleenesque organ in the intestinal tract while you are young is not a good idea, as you want very controlled immunity, erring on the lax side. Hell, the appendix is a blind pouch, and inflammation in the area seals it off, creating a nice gangrenous area after a while.

On another note, it's thought to be part of a shrunken cecum, which was to house bacteria that helps digest plant products. It's not like the rest of the gut doesn't have lymphoid follicles either.

Shhh, Kuat, he's getting his info from an evolutionist!