There are many signs on our bodies that show how different we are from our ancestors. From the way we eat to our daily lives, there isn’t much thing that links us to the primitive version of humans. That is expecting for questionable body parts.
According to science, early humans had to have larger jaws and more teeth to work through the uncooked veggies and meat. Since our diet is much different now we have obtained smaller jaw. Making our wisdom teeth more of a nuisance than a necessity.
1. Male nipples
Why does male have nipples? All human fetuses develop nipples before our gender is determined. Without an influx hormone like estrogen, they are simply chested ornaments on men.
2. Armpit hair
There are two types of sweat glands in your body: eccrine and apocrine, the latter of which are mostly in your armpits, explains Daniel Lieberman, Ph.D., professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. You use apocrine for sexual signaling. Presumably, the hair holds on to the secreted odors so they will stay around long enough for a potential mate to catch a whiff, he explains. So, why you need them?
3. Tonsils
“Your oral cavity is an entryway to your body, so immune cells in your throat can help you fight respiratory infections,” Lieberman explains.
Sometimes your tonsils get inflamed and infected, which is when they are removed. Your lymph nodes are incredibly important, but there is some redundancy, so if a pair is taken away, you can survive without them, Lieberman adds.
4. Appendix
During primitive people gather vegetarians, the appendix helped to digest the food. Located between the small and large intestine, the appendix assisted the latter in digesting cellulose and possibly also produced white blood cells. Though lying dormant, the appendix can cause a host of problems like it can get infected causing appendicitis – an inflammation of the appendix. It causes abdominal pain, decreased appetite, nausea etc but most of the time people do not have the symptoms.
5. Sinus
Sinuses are air-filled spaces surrounding the nasal cavity in the human face. Previously sinuses were responsible for our heightened sense of smell that allowed our ancestors to hunt on daily basis and survive. Sinuses serve a few possible functions like increase resonance of our voice, regulate pressure; lighten the weight in the front of our skull etc. Inflammation of the sinuses causes nasal irrigation and can even lead to cancer.
6. Coccyx
Otherwise called the tailbone, it has believed to the remnant of our prehistoric ancestor’s body part. Also found in Apes, the Coccyx is the final hanging segment of our vertebral column.
Why exactly did we need a tail in ancient time? Scientists believe that the tail helped in communicating and balancing our structure but since we humans learned to walk upright, the tail slowly ceased to exist leaving only a speck of reminder hanging uselessly.