The observation that seemingly different organisms may exhibit similar embryological forms provides indirect but convincing evidence of a past evolutionary relationship. Slugs and giant ocean squids, for example, do not bear much superficial resemblance to each other, but the similarity of their embryological forms provides convincing evidence that they are both mollusks.
Vestigial Structures
Many organisms possess vestigial structures that have no apparent function, but that resemble structures their presumed ancestors had. Humans, for example, possess a complete set of muscles for wiggling their ears, just as a coyote does (table 22.1). Boa constrictors have hip bones and rudimentary hind legs. Manatees (a type of aquatic mammal often referred to as “sea cows”) have fingernails on their fins (which evolved from legs). Figure 22.17 illustrates the skeleton of a baleen whale, which contains pelvic bones, as other mammal skeletons do, even though such bones serve no known function in the whale. The human vermiform appendix is apparently vestigial; it represents the degenerate terminal part of the cecum, the blind pouch or sac in which the large intestine begins. In other mammals such as mice, the cecum is the largest part of the large intestine and functions in storageusually of bulk cellulose in herbivores. Although some suggestions have been made, it is difficult to assign any current function to the vermiform appendix. In many respects, it is a dangerous organ: quite often it becomes infected, leading to an inflammation called appendicitis; without surgical removal, the appendix may burst, allowing the contents of the gut to come in contact with the lining of the body cavity, a potentially fatal event. 
FIGURE 17
Vestigial features.The skeleton of a baleen whale, a representative of the group of mammals that contains the largest living species, contains pelvic bones. These bones resemble those of other mammals, but are only weakly developed in the whale and have no apparent function.
It is difficult to understand vestigial structures such as these as anything other than evolutionary relicts, holdovers from the evolutionary past. They argue strongly for the common ancestry of the members of the groups that share them, regardless of how different they have subsequently become.
Comparisons of the anatomy of different living animals often reveal evidence of shared ancestry. In some instances, the same organ has evolved to carry out different functions, in others, an organ loses its function altogether. Sometimes, different organs evolve in similar ways when exposed to the same selective pressures.
Table 1 Some Vestigial Traits in Humans
Trait Description
Ear-wiggling muscles Three small muscles around each ear that are large and important in some mammals, such as dogs, turning the ears toward a source of sound. Few people can wiggle their ears, and none can turn them toward sound.
Tail Present in human and all vertebrate embryos. In humans, the tail is reduced; most adults only have three to five tiny tail bones and, occasionally, a trace of a tail-extending muscle.
Appendix Structure which presumably had a digestive function in some of our ancestors, like the cecum of some herbivores. In humans, it varies in length from 515 cm, and some people are born without one.
Wisdom teeth Molars that are often useless and sometimes even trapped in the jawbone. Some people never develop wisdom teeth.
Based on a suggestion by Dr. Leslie Dendy, Department of Science and Technology, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos.
©Txtwriter Inc
