Vestigial structures are body parts that we've evolved to no longer need. The natural selection process dictates that we keep the traits that continue to serve a purpose while the others become functionless or degenerate. Here are five vestigial body parts. 1. AppendixIn humans, this organ dates back almost 80 million years and helped by our ancestors to digest tough plants and vegetables. Located in the lower right part of the intestine, the appendix is approximately 3.5 inches long and les ...read more
[embedded content]Male fiddler crabs attract mates by waving around comically oversized pincers, the same ones they use to threaten other potential suitors. Male elk leech calcium from their very bones to grow antlers that weigh as much as coffee tables. There are countless other examples of big horns and big swagger: The African Buffalo, the Striped Love Beetle, the Capra Ibex.Isn't there an easier way for sex relations to sort themselves out in the animal kingdom?Such horns and claws, accordin ...read more
This story appeared in the May 2020 issue and was published on the web on April 17, 2020. Subscribe to Discover magazine for more stories like this. The article has since been updated. Powerful Facts About Trees You Never Knew 1. I think that I shall never see an organism as vital as a tree. Without these woody, perennial members of the plant kingdom, we might still be squirming around the seafloor.2. About 400 million years ago, early trees transformed terrestrial environments by reducing atmo ...read more
Isabelle Lousada was in her early 30s when she collapsed at her Philadelphia wedding in 1995. A London architect, she had suffered a decade of mysterious symptoms: tingling fingers, swollen ankles, a belly distended by her enlarged liver. The doctors she first consulted suggested she had chronic fatigue syndrome or that she’d been partying and drinking too hard.But her new brother-in-law, a cardiologist, felt that something else must be going on. A fresh series of doctor’s visits led, finall ...read more
This article originally appeared in Nexus Media News.After a series of winter storms pummeled California this winter, thousands of trees across the state lost their grip on the earth and crashed down into power lines, homes and highways. Sacramento alone lost more than 1,000 trees in less than a week. Stressed by years of drought, pests and extreme weather, urban trees are in trouble. The U.S. Forest Service estimates that cities are losing some 36 million trees every year, wiped out by ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
