If the appendix is a vestigial organ, what was it's former function?
113900
What we call the appendix in humans is called the gut caecum in other mammals.\n\nMammals can’t digest cellulose, what we commonly call plant fibre. As a result they can’t get any energy out of eating grass or leaves. But, I hear you say, plenty of mammals eat grass and leaves. But they don’t really. They just SWALLOW the grass and leaves.  Microbes in the animal’s gut cause the leaves to rot and the mammals then digest the microbes. So in a very real way horses and cows eat microbes, they just swallow grass.\n\nThe longer plant material sits in the gut the more time the microbes have to make it rot and the more energy the animal can get. For animals that eat a diet high in fibrous plant material the gut caecum serves as a holding tank for the food material while  have a chance to make it rot.\n\nThe appendix in gorillas for example is quite huge, about 2 feet long IIRC. Compared to just a couple of inches in humans That’s because gorillas live on a diet extremely high in plant fibre, and we don’t. Rabbits and horses also have huge appendices.
839518
Could be symptoms of appendicitis.
542052
It's difficult to use vestigial organs as proof for evolution for two reasons.  1) You have to prove that a vestigial organ is, in fact, the remnant of some ancient organ, particularly an organ for which organisms would no longer have a need.  This is virtually impossible to do, as we have little information regarding the anatomy and physiology of prehistoric organisms. 2) You also have to prove that the vestigial organ is, in fact, a vestigial organ.  There are other examples of organs or appendages that were originally considered to be 'vestigial' and were then later found to have useful functions.  For example, the Vermiform appendix was originally considered to be a vestigial organ in mammals, but many scientists have shown that it may actually have a physiological role.  It's quite possible that all vestigial organs may have a role that we simply haven't discovered yet.  Many biologists have suggested that a vestigial organ be redefined as an organ that we simply don't understand.
333229
Your appendix is on your right side and it can have little flare ups. It could also be your colon or diverticulitis. It will also make either of your sides hurt and sometimes both. If you are having any other symptoms. Does this usually happen after you eat? You probably need to check with your doctor.
882374
The tailbone is a vestigial structure, which means there is no use for it. The reason we have it is because at some point in our evolutionary line, an animal that humans evolved from had a tail. Over a very long period of time, and as we evolved into human beings (Homo sapiens), we grew out of a need for it, and it gradually decreased in size, becoming what is now our tailbone (coccyx).
810098
"Some muscles attached to the external ear in humans seem vestigial in terms of evolution.  Some of us can wiggle our ears, some of us cannot.  In lower mammals, dogs for instance, these muscles allow exquisite control of the external ear for purposes of moving them to better able to detect where sounds originate.  In some aquatic animals, the little tab of skin in front of the ear canal, called the tragus, can be operated to act as a valve to open and close the ear canal.\n\nHowever, the earlobe itself has no known biological function."
408312
the stomach is on his left side. Could possibly be ulcers.\n\nThe appendix and gallbladder are on the right side, and the kidney's are on the back side of your lower back.
171223
In humans, again the caudal extension of the spine (also in other hominoids), and potentially the appendix. In other animals, horses have a vestigial second toe, whales have vestigial femurs as do other water mammals and snakes. Orangutans have vestigial thumbs. Old World (African and Asian) monkeys have relatively vestigial tails (they don't do much for balance and they aren't prehensile). And chickens have vestigial genes that when tinkered with have been able to produce teeth :)
520812
An appendage is external body part that protrudes from the body, or a natural prolongation or projection from a part of any organism, such as a vertebrate's limbs.\nSo are you saying you have very short arms.  I guess there are some shallow girls who would run, but hang in there.  ;>)
307167
the first answer is good.  they are not fun, you will know something is up.  i had one, it made part of my stomach bulge out, by the appendix was where mine was.  you can get them by too much stress in lifting, you blow out a lining inside and what the lining was holding protrudes out.  you would have to get a surgical procedure to fix it
589538
IT IS A VESTIGIAL ORGAN I.E. AN ORGAN THAT DOES NOT HAVE ANY FUNCTION IN OUR BODY BUT HAS SOME FUNCTION IN OUR ANCESTORS BODIES SUCH AS APES AND MONKEYS. IT DOES NOT HAVE TO DO ANYTHING WITH THEIR TAILS BUT DOES WITH THEIR STOMACH.\nEG: IN BIRDS THE NICTATING GLANDS OF EYES PROTECTS THEM FROM WIND WHEN THEY FLY BUT OUR NICTATING GLANDS ARE USELESS,WE INSTEAD HAVE TO USE SUN GLASSES.\nTRUST ME I JUST GAVE MY BIO. EXAM.
388070
www.webmd.com would be a good starting point for additional resources.\n\nFor such a broad assignment, I would recommend picking the surgical procedure first. I think it would be easier to research "how an appendectomy is performed".
1061987
I never heard it called that before, but here's what I found:\n\nThe plica (PLY-ka) semilunaris (sem-ee-LOO-ner-is) is located around the eye. For many years, this organ was thought to have no function. But lo and behold, eventually it was discovered that this “useless” organ has an important function after all. \n\nIn fact, it is the “crusty” factory. It secretes a sticky mass that collects any foreign materials such as dust or pollen. All this trash is surrounded by the sticky gook so that it does not scratch the sensitive cornea in your eye. Once the garbage is collected, the plica semilunaris “escorts” it out of the eye just like a security guard would escort noisy troublemakers out of a theater.
98566
If you had your appendix removed Laproscopically, it is probably the co2 they used to air your belly up to visualize and remove your appendix. The air will eventually work its way out. If you had it the "old fashioned way", where they cut you open to get it out, it could be that your muscles were stretched some during the procedure. You should be able to resume your exercise routine as soon as your Dr. releases you, and get your tummy muscles toned back up.
100908
Technically speaking, it is called the vermiform appendix.  Vermi refers to worm and if you look at an appendix, you will see that it looks quite a bit like a worm.
648453
Here's the thing: I'm not an expert on fetal anatomy, but human fetuses do not have gills.  They do have tails for a few weeks, appearing around the 4th week and dispearing around the 8th.  They also have regions that are homolgous to those that develop into gills in aquatic organisms, but will form the throat of the human fetus.\n\nThe gill and tail myth was created by a man named Haeckel.  Now, Haeckel actually (whatever creationists may say) did have some good ideas, but he was a very bad scientist and had an unfortunate tendancy, especially in the later part of his career, to exagerate and even completely fabricate morphological features of embryos.\n\nHOWEVER, there _is_ an association between fetal development and evolutionary lineage.  It's just a bit more subtle than Haeckel claimed.  While embryos don't go through stages that ressemble the adult forms of their ancestors, the is a distinct correlation between the age at which the morphology of embryos of different species diverges and the evolutionary relationship between those species.  For example, human embryos and chimp embryos look really similar for a lot longer than human embryos and snake embryos.  But human and snake embryos look similar to each other long after they have completely diverged from the development of, say, a sea urchin.\n\nYour point about gills and tails isn't very accurate, and the actual connection between evolution and development is not very accesable to the non-scientist, but there is plenty of evidence for evolution that doesn't take a PhD to understand.  Here are a few points that I hope will help you next time you want to defend the theory of evolution:\n\n\n1. Vestigial structures\n\nOne example of a vestigial structure in humans is the appendix. It has no function. Removing it is harmful only in so far as any surgery is associated with certain risks (so I wouldn't have it removed just for fun, but it's because of the surgery not the absence of the appendix). An appendix is found in several mammals. In humans it is small and has no known function. In rabbits and many other herbivores it is large and is used in the digestion of cellulose.\n\nAnother example of a vestigial structure is the hipbones of snakes. Snakes evolved from quadrupeds, and some species still retain not on pelvises, but tiny protrusions of bone in a location that corresponds to the location of the legs in other quadrupeds.\n\n2. Microevolution can be observed in both a controlled laboratory setting and in nature.\n\nCreationists will tell you that microevolution does not prove macroevolution.  This is true.  However, it does provide evidence that macroevolution may be possible. Taken in the context of the other evidence for evolution, microevolution provides a mechanism by which macroevolution could occur. On its own, it doesn't prove that macroevolution occurs, but it does suggest that it is possible.\n\n3. The fossil record.\n\nAlthough the fossil record does not provide a “complete” record as fossils form only under certain conditions, it does show a gradual change in the morphology of species as well as numerous extinct species.  There are a number of methods used to date fossils, and the time period from which a fossil comes can be determined with reasonable accuracy.\n\n4. Imperfect structures (the blind spot of the mammalian eye, for example).\n\nI want to mention the bind-spot of the mammalian eye specifically because creationists often hold up the human eye up as an example of something that is too perfect to occur by "chance" (i.e. as the result of the natural selection of beneficial changes among random mutations).\n\nThere are also numerous examples where the morphology of a species is constrained by similar patterns in its ancestors (quadrupeds, vertebrates, etc.).\n\n5. Developmental biology reflects evolutionary lineage.\n\nCreationists like to bring up a man named Haeckel in response to this argument.
814580
Evolution of the aortic arch system has been one of progressive deletion and substitution, accompanied by a reorientation or rerouting of the blood supply.\nThe greatest changes in the system occurred in the transition from the holoaquatic to the terrestrial habit, with deletion of the first, second, and finally the fifth pairs of arches. Associated with these deletions, and the development of the pulmonary circulation, was reduction and atrophy of the dorsal portion of the\nsixth arches. Subsequently, evolution of the system has resulted in atrophy of one of the radices aortae (left in birds and right in mammals), loss of the left systemic arch in birds, and loss or functional modification of the right systemic arch in mammals.\nStill further changes and deletions in this system are found to occur in the birds.\nOf very common occurrence is reduction or loss of the dorsal portion of either the left or right 3rd aortic arch, accompanied by fusion of the dorsal carotids, anterior to the carotid arch (unicarotid condition). In a few instances, however, both left and right dorsal carotids become reduced to ligamentous vestiges (ligamentiottleyi) and cephalic blood flow is carried by the vertebral and superficialcervical arteries. In such instances, the dorsal portions of both left and right carotid arches become obliterated.\nWith loss of the left systemic arch, the left ductus caroticus loses its posterior connection, and usually becomes functionally modified. In most instances this is followed by a similar disconnection of the right ductus caroticus. The latter, however, frequently retains its connection between the carotid and systemic arches and remains as a patent vessel.\nRecent studies on 810 species and subspecies of birds have revealed the following, rather interesting, fact. In a single specimen of Megapodius freycinet layardi,\nand over 30 specimens of the Trochilidae, both left and right systemic (4th aortic) arches were lacking. In each of these instances, it was apparent that the right ductus caroticus remained as the functional systemic arch which carried the blood\nsupply to the abdominal aorta. Such a condition is not to be regarded as totally unexpected in the course of evolution of the aortic arch system, although it has not, to the writer's knowledge, been reported previously.\nThe particular significance of the occurrence of this reduction in Megapodius and among the Trochilidae cannot be satisfactorily evaluated at this time. It seems to me to be significant that the Trochilidae appear to present a highly uniform occurrence\nin the deletion of the right systemic arch, particularly in view of their rather restricted distribution. Evolution of this family of birds probably centered in\nSouth America, after an earlier origin from the common Apode stock in Antarctica.\nInsular isolation of Megapodius layardi may have been a factor contributing to the evolution and deletion of the right systemic arch in this specimen. It has not, however, been ascertained to what extent this deletion may occur in this species, but\nfurther studies might reveal the expected frequency of occurrence.\nIn conclusion, it may be expected that, in the course of evolution of the aortic arch system of birds, only the proximal or ventral portions of the 3rd aortic (carotid) ancl 6th aortic (pulmonary) arches and the right ductus caroticus will remain as the\nfunctional portions of the embryonic aortic arch system. The major cephalic blood supply will then be carried by the vertebral and superficial cervical arteries, while the blood supply to the abdominal region will be carried by the ductus\ncaroticus and abdominal aorta.