Are there really useless organs in the human body? It is unlikely that anyone would want to remove their appendix unless it starts to bother them, although it has no apparent function.

Here is a list of “not quite useful” organs of the human body that nature has endowed us with.

10. Third eyelid

You may not know that you have a third eyelid in the inner corner of the eye. The third eyelid is the remaining part of the “nictitating membrane“, which is still present in some animals, such as chickens, lizards, and sharks.

9. Body Hair

Without a doubt, once humans used to have much more hair. About 3 million years ago, our ancestors were completely covered by it. But with the emergence of Homo erectus, body hair lost its use.

8. Sinuses

Scientists do not really know much about sinuses, except for the fact that we have many of them. Hypotheses about their function vary from protection of the eyes to the change of the voice pitch.

7. Adenoids

Adenoids “catch” the bacteria, but they are also prone to edema and non-resistant to infections, which are often faced by children. Luckily, with age, our tonsils decrease in size, and if they cause any problems, they can be removed.

6. Tonsils

They have a similar function to that of adenoids and are also prone to edema and non-resistant to infections.

5. Coccyx

The coccyx is several fused vertebrae leftover from the ancient times when humans used to have tails. It is believed to be one of the absolutely useless organs of the human body.

4. Arrector Pili

When humans were hairy, thanks to this organ, their hair stood on end when they needed to look bigger and scarier. Now, thanks to it, we feel tingling on the skin.

3. Wisdom Teeth

Going back to the days when humans used to eat mammoth meat and did not brush their teeth, they tended to spoil quickly and fell out. Then our ancestors used wisdom teeth. Now, the presence of toothpaste and brushes made them quite useless.

2. Appendix

Darwin argued that the appendix was actively involved in digestion during the first years of human existence when early humans used to be plant-eaters, but after they started eating more digestible food, it lost its use.

1. Men’s nipples

No one still knows anything about the purpose of this organ, which seems to be completely useless.

These are just some of the ‘useless’ organs of the human body. As you have seen, most of them have evolutionary roots, so they probably exist just because they were once very useful to our ancestors.


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This Post Has One Comment

  1. Scarry Terry

    >The sinuses resonate the voice and also enhance smelling capabilities. Air pockets also lighten then skull which is already very heavy to begin with during infancy
    >The term for these body parts are “vestigial organs.” >>nictitating membrane earns you brownie points from your sixth grade science teacher, but other than that there is a complete lack of scientific literacy in this article.
    >Great site

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