unless you've had it removed you like
every other person in the world have an
appendix which is kind of a stupid thing
to have in your body it doesn't do much
it kind of cuddles with your intestines
don't imagine your intestines don't mind
having someone to cuddle with it does
provide that function it also holds on
to some gut bacteria which is nice but
it pretty much does nothing for your
entire life until the day when suddenly
it has an uprising and decides to kill
you the appendix along with some other
completely useless things in your body
like wisdom teeth and your tailbone well
they did not escape the notice of one Mr
Charles Darwin he was a scientist you
may have heard of him so Darwin wrote
this book it was kind of important
called On the Origin of Species and in
that book he said that these things were
vestiges of bygone eras times when the
ancestors of humans somewhere down the
line had a use for a tail or some extra
teeth for chewing meat or an organ to
process a bunch of plant cellulose now
Darwin here was not the first person to
notice that humans as well as some other
animals are tricked out with various
equipment that they don't need Darwin
suggested that animals evolve within a
certain set of circumstances and they
develop body parts based on those
circumstances but when those
circumstances go away those body parts
they fall into disuse but physical
evidence will remain and the amazing
thing is that he was totally right
they're called vestigial structures
they're not always organs so we say
structures and they're basically one of
the many things about our bodies that
leads us to believe that we evolved from
other species here are some other
examples of cool vestigial structures
that we have Goosebumps Goosebumps are a
reflex rather than an organ but they are
considered to be vestigial in humans the
pyo motor reflex is this thing that
happens when a bird or mammal gets cold
and wants to warm up or when it sees a
predator and it wants to warn that
Predator to step off there's this tiny
little muscle at the base of every
single hair follicle that will contract
and pull the hair erect just cuz I said
erect that's not funny and for a bird or
a dog that might help it get all puffy
and look bigger to a predator hold on to
more air so it can stay warm the
tailbone our tailbone or the Coxx is
this little uh vestage of a tail because
our ancestors used to have tails and I'm
sure Stan won't mind if we show off his
butt here and there you have a little
tail can you get a zoom in on zoom in on
it yeah see see a little butt tail there
he got a little tail and so do you that
was excellent excellent work you're a
really good actor we see tailbones in
all great apes and we even see them in
the fossilized remains of our ancestors
all the way back to the Meine periods
when our ancestors were first trying to
grab on to things with their newly
opposable thumbs so now all we have is
this tiny itty bitty stuff of a tail but
it is not totally useless that bone is
now the anchor to which all of the
muscles that help us uh control our
continents if you know what I mean are
stuck to so thanks tailbone that is an
important job and I appreciate it and
our final vestigial structure the wisdom
teeth we humans have become such
delicate flowers that our mouths no
longer have room for all the teeth we
need in order to eat all of that woolly
mammoth meat that we don't eat anymore
so now that people are all Agricultural
and omnivorous and we generally tend to
cook look our food well our Jaws are now
too small to accommodate all of the
teeth that grow into them and that
results in modern humans frequently
getting impacted wisdom teeth I actually
have one of mine left cuz they took out
three and they couldn't get one they
left the whole but also the tooth was
still there so I'm worried about this
happening to me but 35% of people born
today do not have wisdom teeth at all so
we are actually on an evolutionary
trajectory to get rid of them completely
which I'm in totally in favor of of
course people with wisdom teeth would
have to die and not breed in order to
not pass on that Gene and I failed at
that sorry and actually one more to end
things on a slightly creepier note you
know this membrane that kind of just
hangs out in the corner of your eye well
that is uh probably a vestage of
something called a nictating membrane
which birds still have to this day and
is in fact a uh a third and fourth
eyelid thanks for watching sow if you
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