Useless Body Parts...

If a body part is useless, why have it? Or has the value just diminished over time and evolution? I had a conversation the other day with a group of friends about wisdom teeth and how changes in the human diet over time have made them pointless, to the point where a small percentage of people no longer grow out wisdom teeth. Then there are those other body parts that get cut out like they're nothing. Nowadays, when an appendix or tonsils get chopped out, the patient is home the same day. A couple of weeks ago, I got into another conversation with a friend on these body parts on the list of questionable value. Here are a few that I looked up info on.


Male nipples?

I hadn't really thought about this one until a few months ago when I saw it joked about on a show I can't remember. But really, if nipples are for nurturing children and providing milk to a child, why would men have them. And when you look at other animals like a dog, only the female is born with nipples. So I googled...

http://www.healthbolt.net/2007/07/20/nipples-and-more/

"The reason men have nipples is because our lactiferous ducts develop before testosterone enters the fetal picture. (Yes, we all start as females.) In fact, male mammary tissue can be stimulated to lactate. In Aka culture of Africa - reportedly home of the best fathers on earth - the dads frequently suckle their babies while mom goes off to hunt.

Nipples are not the only thing men and women have in common. Men also possess a “leftover” uterus. It hangs off the prostate gland. We have a lot of useless body parts leftover from previous adventures in evolution. Wisdom teeth, the coccyx, the appendix, and in fact, body hair are all unnecessary remnants of our evolutionary past. Who knows what we’ll look like a few million years from now! (I predict text message thumbs.)"

Interesting, right? So onto the appendix...


Appendix?

Everyone knows at least one person who's now without an appendix. And these people seem to live long happy lives, so why do we have them in the first place. So I googled...

http://www.worldhealth.net/p/the-appendix-does-have-a-use-re-booting-the-gut-.html

"The US scientists found that the appendix acted as a "good safe house" for bacteria essential for healthy digestion, in effect re-booting the digestive system after the host has contracted diseases such as amoebic dysentery or cholera, which kill off helpful germs and purge the gut.

This function has been made obsolete by modern, industrialized society; populations are now so dense that people pick up essential bacteria from each other, allowing gut organisms to regrow without help from the appendix, the researchers said."

And here's one I hadn't even thought about until I had this useless body parts conversation...

Philtrum?

I doubt most people are even aware of its proper name but it's the indentation between the upper lip and nose. I know the name in English and Korean only because of its significance in martial arts; it's used to help determine the height of certain blocks and chops. But anyway, why the dip there? So I googled...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philtrum

"The philtrum (Greek philtron, from philein, "to love; to kiss"), also known as the infranasal depression, is the vertical groove in the upper lip, formed where the nasomedial and maxillary processes meet during embryonic development.

The philtrum allows humans to express a much larger range of lip motions than would otherwise be possible, which enhances vocal and non-verbal communication.

The ancient Greeks used to believe that the philtrum was one of the most erogenous spots on the human body, hence the etymology."

I would have thought the phithrum, out of all the body parts I've mentioned, would have the least value but it's apparently rather significant. Who knew?


And the writer's comment from the first link is something I wonder too... what will we look like as we evolve farther and are nipple-less men just around the corner? Hmm....