You Don’t Need 5 Toes or 14 Other Body Features

Humans have tails. Okay, that sounds weird, I know. But it’s true. While our bodies are still forming in the womb, at around day 31 to 35, you can really start to see it. Right now, you have a tail! It’s inside you.

It’s part of your coccyx, to be more precise. If you were to have an X-ray right now and asked the doctor to show you your tail, you’d see some small bony segments at the bottom of your spinel. We lost our tails over decades of evolution.

Imagine if we still had our tails, they’d have to redesign pants. Maybe they’d have a special hole or even a tail pocket. Sitting might be a bit uncomfortable, too, to say the least.

Our ancestors also had fur — we lost it about 1.2 million years ago. You might be thinking that we still have fur, in the form of our body hair. But that’s nothing compared to what we used to have.

We were thickly furred like chimpanzees and gorillas are now because we needed it to stay warm. You might be annoyed that we lost it if you live somewhere freezing cold, like Alaska. Still, you could look at it the other way. Losing our fur lets us enjoy the warm weather a bit more.

Living in larger groups meant we shared stuff, and not all of it was positive. It’s possible that humans with less hair, or fur, would get sick less often because they didn’t have as many parasites on them, like lice or ticks.

This might be the reason why we evolved to lose our fur and become what you see today. Although I have to admit, more body warmth would come in very handy right now. I wouldn’t need to keep this blanket on my legs anymore!

Hic! Hic! Oh, not again... Hic! Let me just grab a cup of water to make these hiccups go away. Aah! Much better. Okay, in reality, it’s not that easy to stop hiccupping. But why is it so hard to stop them? Well, it could be because of a strange feature of a past evolution.

One theory is that hiccups have no real use anymore, and that we actually only do it because we come from amphibians! They had both lungs and gills at the same time. When they went underwater, the entryway (or glottis) to their lungs would close. Fast-forward to today, and we still have that mechanism of closing the glottis, but it’s useless because we don’t live in the water. How unfair!

If we have to get frustrated by hiccups, we should at least be able to get some use out of it. Picture this, you start getting the hiccups, and it’s like a superpower! You stop breathing through your lungs and start using some gills. That’d be something else, especially for anyone who really likes swimming.

Most of our teeth fit pretty much perfectly in our mouth, but there are 4 of them who arrive late to the party and ruin everything! I’m talking about wisdom teeth. They serve no real purpose, but humans and a few primates have them. However, lucky species like the tamarins don’t have to worry about them.

Around 35% of people don’t even have wisdom teeth! We might be on our way to losing them altogether, once and for all. No more going to the dentist on a mission to remove them. No more headaches from them either!

In Ireland, there are a LOT of people with red hair. Like... really a lot! Upwards of 30%. That’s a lot of redheads out there. This is a result of genetic drift. Genetic drift is when a feature is passed on from your ancestors without really having any purpose. This is exactly why some people have red hair. So, if you have red hair, there’s no real reason for it — it’s just your ancestors from a past age who’s passed on to another member of your family, and eventually, you.

Inside of our mother’s womb, 16 weeks in, we get a powerful urge to grasp the umbilical, and so we do. Monkeys do this, too — and there’s a reason for it. It’s because, when they’re out in the wild, they need to hold on to their parents’ fur. Humans used to do this but, since we lost all of our fur, there’s no need for us to develop this involuntary grasping, called the Palmar Grasp Reflex.

Open wide and say aah — Good, I can see your tonsils now. But, what are they even used for? If we take a good look at it, they actually cause more problems than benefits. Tonsils appeared as a way to protect us from germs and other nasty stuff when we eat food. Still, more often than not, all they do is give us a horrible sore throat. Because of this, it’s really common for people to get rid of them.

Picture a little pouch — we have one of these inside of our body. Not exactly like this but... an organ that sort of resembles a pouch — our appendix. Scientists used to think it was completely useless but recently found that it might actually have some use. Still, like tonsils — it often causes more problems than benefits. People commonly have their appendix removed and face no real consequences, so it can’t be that important! It might’ve helped our ancestors in the past, but issues with the appendix can be a big stomach-ache!

Okay, you know how some people can weirdly move their ears? Like this! I can’t do it. You might be able to, though. Try it out for yourself! Some of us can do this because, like other animals, we have a muscle called the auricular muscle, but it’s useless for us.

Cats, on the other hand, control their ears pretty well. If only we could learn from them. They look forwards and listen out for a noise behind them without moving their head, just their ears. That’s a pretty cool skill if you ask me.

Stretch your arm as far as you can, your hand too. Now connect your thumb to your pinky finger. You might see a line appear on your wrist. What you’re seeing is called the palmaris longus, and about 90% of the world’s population has it! Statistically speaking, it’s likely that you have it too. Back then, our ancestors needed every bit of help they could get to climb trees and grasp things. But, when we started walking, it made these muscles completely useless.

Monkeys, on the other hand, still climb trees easily! They have a muscle in their feet called the plantaris muscle. Also known as the monkey muscle. We have this too, except we don’t really need it on the count that we don’t go around doing any monkey business. Like the palmaris longus, around 10 % of people are born without it. Chances are, if monkeys are hanging from a branch, that’s the muscle they’re using.

If you’re getting that late-night urge for food at 3 am, it’s because of hunger. You probably already know that but, what you don’t know is that hunger evolved as a trigger to drive us to search for more food. So, if you’ve still got a few extra pounds you’re trying to get rid of, you know what to do. Blame it on evolution!

Our hungriest ancestors would have tried harder to look for food and survived to pass that trait on to us. Our love of sugary snacks, like delicious chocolate cookies and milk, is because of evolution too! Our taste buds evolved just as hunger did to help us find food that’s beneficial for us.

You’re only wearing a t-shirt, so you decide to go back home. You get into your house with chattering teeth and realize that you’ve got goosebumps too! We get this from our furry ancestors. When it was cold, they would get goosebumps, and their fur would stand on end. This would trap air and insulate their bodies, like a nice fluffy coat. We don’t have any fur anymore, so it doesn’t do much.

Evolution also explains why you might get goosebumps when you’re scared. Picture this — you’re a caveman out in the wild when, suddenly, a tiger jumps out at you! It starts growling at you! No worries, your hair stands on end, and you look giant! The big pointy fur intimidates the tiger, so it runs off.

We don’t actually need 5 toes! You’re doing the laundry, and your hands are full. Oh! You dropped a towel. What do you do? You pick it up with your feet, of course. This is possible because of our 5th toe, but we could do without it. Since we walk upright, and we don’t need to go around jumping from branch to branch, this toe is mostly useless. We can walk and even run just fine with 4 toes. Maybe even less! So, who knows, maybe in the future, humans will only have 4 toes on each foot!