An Explanation of Vestigial Body Parts Made Useless Through Evolution

Doctor Jeffrey Laitman, PhD, a renowned anatomist and physical anthropologist, talked to Wired about every vestigial structure within the human body, how it was rendered useless, from where it came, and why we still have it.

From the “wisdom” teeth and our simian tailbones down to muscles made less important by our double-arched feet, Dr. Laitman highlights where it came from—and how it ended up still inside of us.

These useless body parts include wisdom teeth, male nipples, body hair, erector pili (goosebumps), the appendix, the coccyx (tailbone), the shrunken plantaris muscle and our evolution to double arched feet.