You Can Find the Proof of Evolution in Our Own Spare Body Parts: From Third Molars to Vestigial Tails

Look­ing for proof of evo­lu­tion? Per­haps you don’t need to look much beyond your own body. Cre­at­ed by Vox, the video above high­lights the ves­ti­gial body parts and traits we’ve retained from ear­li­er points in our evo­lu­tion­ary his­to­ry. Writes Vox’s Joss Fong:

Ves­ti­gial struc­tures are evo­lu­tion’s left­overs — body parts that, through inher­i­tance, have out­lived the con­text in which they arose. Some of the most delight­ful reminders of the com­mon ances­try we share with oth­er ani­mals, they show that the build­ing blocks of the human body pre­date our species by hun­dreds of mil­lions of years.

For a clos­er look at the mechan­ics of evo­lu­tion, you can spend time with Yale’s open course, Prin­ci­ples of Evo­lu­tion, Ecol­o­gy and Behav­ior, which is part of our col­lec­tion of Free Online Biol­o­gy Cours­es. But if you don’t want to dig ter­ri­bly deep, then start with Carl Sagan’s eight minute ani­mat­ed primer. It’s pet­ty hard to beat.

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. Or fol­low our posts on Threads, Face­book, BlueSky or Mastodon.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Richard Dawkins Explains Why There Was Nev­er a First Human Being

10 Mil­lion Years of Evo­lu­tion Visu­al­ized in an Ele­gant, 5‑Foot Long Info­graph­ic from 1931

Watch 570 Mil­lion Years of Evo­lu­tion on Earth in 60 Sec­onds

Carl Sagan Explains Evo­lu­tion in an Eight-Minute Ani­ma­tion