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The origins of human beings can be traced back to about 7.5 million years ago, when they evolved from the apes, the ancestors of humans, to the forests and the plains after a long era of hunting and gathering.
In order to adapt to life on the ground, humans gradually evolved from crawling on all fours to walking upright about 2 million years ago. It has undergone many transformations and advances, made tools, mastered languages, and developed into the higher beings of modern earth.
Human beings are the most intelligent creatures on the earth at present, capable of complex thinking and problem solving, and have different perceptions and emotional responses to things, but such a human with a highly developed brain has been found to have many irrational structures in the physiological structure of the body, and even many lag behind many mammals, why is this?
Why are higher organisms equipped with "low-grade hardware"?
1. Wisdom teeth have always been considered to be the legacy of human evolution.
Wisdom teeth are the third molars of humans, located at the end of the tooth socket, wisdom teeth have almost become synonymous with toothache in modern society, but in fact, wisdom teeth were a great aid to humans in ancient times to digest food.
Most of the food of human ancestors was composed of high-fiber foods such as whole grains and tree bark, so they needed wide jaws and sharp molars to help chew hard rhizomes and fruits.
At the same time, late-erupting wisdom teeth also fill the void in the chewing tools of human ancestors who had their teeth polished due to long-term rough eating habits. Studies have shown that wisdom teeth problems in modern society are not caused by environmental variation, but by dietary changes.
In the process of human evolution, the development of food is also becoming more and more refined, and the finely processed food reduces chewing activity and lacks continuous chewing stimulation, resulting in the gradual atrophy of the mandible and muscles, the development of the jaw is also gradually degrading, and the living space for wisdom teeth is also gradually decreasing.
The structural changes of modern food have reduced the human jaw by nearly 40%, and many wisdom teeth that have only grown in their teens or even adults have little living space and lack of running-in, and the meaning of existence can only be to squeeze the teeth next to them to cause pain.
Over time, wisdom teeth eventually lose their habitat as a remnant of evolution. According to modern clinical statistics, about 35% of people are born without wisdom teeth, and according to the current trend of wisdom teeth fading, human beings may say goodbye to wisdom teeth in a thousand years.
Now that we encounter wisdom teeth, if they do not affect their work and life, it is okay to keep them, but if they cause tooth pain and inflammation, they are still the first choice to remove them.
2. Degenerated ear muscles
Do you move your ears? Many small animals have ears that move, and animals such as horses and dogs have this ability, which is important for advanced mammals.
The muscles that can control the movement of the ears are called ear muscles, which can be used to adjust the angle of the ears, and the freely rotating pinna can collect sound waves extensively, like a radar, improve the ability to hear, so that the animals that are eating and mammating can always grasp the sound wave changes around them, so as to avoid the attack of predators in time.
But this skill is not very useful to humans today.
The tissues and organs of the human body are more perfect, and the upright body, coupled with the flexible rotation of the neck muscles, greatly broadens our horizons, and we no longer have to rely on the activity of the pinna to improve the range of hearing, so many people's ear muscles have degenerated.
Now, the ear-moving muscles that are closely connected to the human outer ear are the anterior, supraauricric, and postauricular muscles, which only function like ligaments to hold the pinna. Only a very small number of people have the ability to move their ears that have not yet fully degenerated and thus exhibit the ability to move their ears.
In general, the current human population is still in the process of evolution and is not complete, so there are still many body structures and skills possessed by ancient humans.
Some may affect life, such as wisdom teeth, while others have a very low presence and can be ignored, while some of the seemingly degraded physiological structures are actually the price to be paid for changes in human lifestyles.
Part of the change is actually the price of walking upright
Walking upright is a unique feature of human beings, and it is also one of the biggest differences from other primates, although walking upright has made human life more convenient, but the rapid development of upright walking has made some body structures seem to be unable to keep up with the development.
First of all, walking upright causes the pelvis to gradually narrow!
In order to ensure the stability of the human body walking upright, the human pelvis can support the weight of the upper body, so that the development of the pelvis is more stable and narrower, similar to the direction of "triangle", because the pelvis is too wide may cause the left and right swing when walking, and the limbs are not extremely uncoordinated enough to complete complex movements such as standing and running for a long time.
But the narrowing of the pelvis can make it more painful for women to give birth. Compared with the closest human chimpanzee, it can be clearly found that the chimpanzee has a wider pelvis and more space for the offspring to give birth, which is more suitable for giving birth.
The human brain has gradually become enlarged over tens of thousands of years of development, while the birth canal has shrunk due to the narrowing of the pelvis, although the newborn has maintained its primary stage when the brain volume is delivered in order to adapt to the narrow birth canal, and the brain volume is developed and perfected only one year after birth, and the pelvis expands during childbirth in women, but the probability of dystocia in humans is increasing.
However, fortunately, with the advancement of medical standards, the number of deaths due to dystocia is now very small, and the probability of dying due to dystocia is about 1 in 10,000.
Secondly, walking upright accelerates the aging of the spine!
Many people will wonder why more and more people are prone to diseases such as cervical spine and lumbar spine, which has a lot to do with the state of upright walking.
The spine was originally designed to be used as a vault to facilitate crawling, and most of the vertebrates of terrestrial vertebrates show a gentle C-shaped curvature, and even humans have a C-shaped vertebral curvature during the fetal period, which is originally the most stable structure.
And when humans stand up, the spine can only be used as a weight-bearing existence.
In order to support the heavy head, maintain body balance, and strengthen the upper limbs, the spine evolved into a multi-segment S-shape. However, because the spine itself is curved, the spinal bones grow into a wedge shape that is wide in front and narrow in the back, and walking upright will increase the load on the back, and long-term upright walking is more likely to cause pain due to herniated discs or excessive compression.
Although walking upright has greatly changed the way of life, it has also made our bodies seem a little "out of step with evolution", and human beings are still in the process of continuous improvement and evolution, and perhaps in the future, these problems will be solved.
In addition to the actual problematic physiological structure, there are some organs in the human body that seem to be "useless", but in fact they are useful beings that the human body has retained in the process of evolution.
It seems unreasonable, but it is actually an evolutionary reservation
1, Coccyx
The coccyx is an important part of the human skeleton, located at the end of the spine, and is the part of the "tail" that remains after human evolution. Many people think that the coccyx has no effect, which is a complete misconception.
The most important role of the coccyx is to play a supporting and balancing role.
The coccyx is located at the bottom of the body, and when the body is upright, the coccyx is subjected to gravity from the upper body, allowing the body to maintain balance. When seated, a tripod structure is formed between the tailbone and pelvis, which also supports the body and maintains balance.
The coccyx strengthens the lumbosacral core muscles by connecting with the pelvic bone and surrounding muscles to lift internal organs and protect organs such as the bladder and rectum. Clinical studies have found that about 50% of people who have their coccyx removed will have spinal problems and even internal organ prolapse.
In addition, the coccyx is also able to disperse and bear part of the pressure during the woman's childbirth, thereby reducing the pain of childbirth. There are also related neurovascular vessels of the rectum and bladder in front of the coccyx, and the rupture of the coccyx is likely to affect the normal metabolic function.
Therefore, the coccyx is very useful to the human body, and it should be protected in daily life, and if there is any discomfort, seek medical attention in time, and it cannot be removed at will.
2. Gongwei
The appendix, along with wisdom teeth and tonsils, is often referred to as the most "inflammatory" in the human body. Many people feel that the appendix is not only useless, but may also increase the risk of appendiceal cancer, and many people even choose to have their appendix cut off at birth.
But in fact, the appendix is part of the body's immune system.
The appendix belongs to the lymphoid organs, in which the lymphoid tissue is abundant, and its main function is similar to that of the tonsils, which can kill some bacteria and microorganisms, and can also transmit the genetic information of lymphocytes, thereby improving the immune function of the human body.
In addition, the appendix can store a large number of intestinal probiotics, which can help maintain the balance of the intestinal environment, kill harmful microorganisms, and prevent various intestinal inflammation.
Therefore, if the appendix is not inflamed and it is not necessary, it is recommended to keep it.
In short, human beings have gone through a complex and long process of development to develop to today's relatively complete human body, although there are still some imperfect, but through daily maintenance and exercise, a healthy life can be achieved.
Bibliography:
[1] Excellence. What is the human degenerative organ in your body[J].Knowledge is Power,2005,(11):36-37.
[2] Shichengke. Is there really a "degenerated and useless" organ in the human body? Nature and Man,2006,(02):52-55.
[3] Tang Jun. Degenerate organs are redundant[J].China Health Care and Nutrition
[4] Li Yuehua. The appendix is not a useless degenerative organ[J].Biology teaching
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