The proof of evolution, as seen on your body

Mar 22, 2016

The proof of evolution that you can find on your own body

Image: The replica of a neanderthall skull is displayed in the new Neanderthal Museum in the northern Croatian town of Krapina. REUTERS/Nikola Solic

Henry Taylor

Previously, Lead, Product and Innovation, Digital media, World Economic Forum Geneva

Our Impact

What's the World Economic Forum doing to accelerate action on Social Innovation?

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how Social Innovation is affecting economies, industries and global issues

Stay up to date:

Social Innovation

"Your body is a temple, but it's also a museum of natural history," starts a fascinating video from Vox on the ancestral leftovers we all retain in our bodies.

Called "vestigial structures", these things no longer retain a specific purpose but remind us of where we've come from.

One example is the tailbone – known as the coccyx. Humans obviously don't have tails to help us move through the treetops and balance on long branches, but a common ancestor did.

Not all of our vestigial structures are as hidden away as the coccyx. Watch Vox's video to see more evidence of millions of years of evolution, on your own body.

Accept our marketing cookies to access this content.

These cookies are currently disabled in your browser.

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.