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HandWiki. Vestigiality. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30853 (accessed on 23 September 2026).
HandWiki. Vestigiality. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30853. Accessed September 23, 2026.
HandWiki. "Vestigiality" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30853 (accessed September 23, 2026).
HandWiki. (2022, October 24). Vestigiality. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/30853
HandWiki. "Vestigiality." Encyclopedia. Web. 24 October, 2022.
Vestigiality
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The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Biology:Vestigiality

Vestigiality is the retention during the process of evolution of genetically determined structures or attributes that have lost some or all of the ancestral function in a given species. Assessment of the vestigiality must generally rely on comparison with homologous features in related species. The emergence of vestigiality occurs by normal evolutionary processes, typically by loss of function of a feature that is no longer subject to positive selection pressures when it loses its value in a changing environment. The feature may be selected against more urgently when its function becomes definitively harmful, but if the lack of the feature provides no advantage, and its presence provides no disadvantage, the feature may not be phased out by natural selection and persist across species. Examples of vestigial structures (also called degenerate, atrophied, or rudimentary organs) are the loss of functional wings in island-dwelling birds; the human vomeronasal organ; and the hindlimbs of the snake and whale. The human appendix is no longer considered vestigial.

vestigiality natural selection vestigial

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