Human vestigiality

High school (ages 12+)
Human Body

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/human-vestigiality

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific field?Evolutionary Biology and Human Anatomy
2. What is the core concept?Anatomical structures or processes with reduced or lost ancestral function
3. What are vestigial parts in our bodies?Vestigial parts are body structures that used to help our ancestors but now have little or no function. They are like old tools that we still keep.
4. Why do we still have the appendix even if it doesn't do much?The appendix is a small piece of the digestive system that once helped break down plant food. In modern humans it is mostly unused, but it can still play a minor role in our immune system.

Vestigial Structure: An anatomical feature that has lost most or all of its ancestral function over evolutionary time.
Natural Selection: The differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype.
Genetic Drift: Random fluctuations in the frequencies of alleles in a population from one generation to the next.
Homologous Structures: Structures in different species that are similar because of common ancestry.