evolution and extra baggage left over from evolution?

Question

can somebody give me some examples of extra stuff left over from evolution in animals, i already know about humans but what about animals

wow good replies keep them coming

bryan im sorry but your wrong wild chickens do fly

just like wild turkeys

Answer 1

good question. however there is no easy answer. an obvious example would be an appendix. but human evolution has slumped off due to lack of competition. the animal kingdom is in constant flux. depending on the specific community some species evolve with every generation so finding biological leftovers become difficult, as typically when a physical or social trait becomes disadvantageous it is phased out. evolution is not a series of steps but rather an ongoing change to adapt to a specific environment. so while some species of birds can fly, others do not because it is not necessary. granted some species evolve faster than others, but only because they have less need to.

Answer 2

That extra little toe on the back of a dog's foot.
The pelvic bone in a whale.

Edit: Bryan, look up artificial selection. Humans pushed the evolution of chickens to make them easy to keep.

Answer 3

Wings on flightless birds. Eyes in the blind fish. The Sexual Organs of Dandelions.

Only females exist in several species of the lizards of the genus Cnemidophorus, which might seem like a problem when it comes time to propagate the species. The females don’t need the males though, they reproduce by parthenogenesis, a form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual. So basically, the females don’t need the males; they just produce clones of themselves as a form of reproduction. Despite the fact that it is unnecessary and futile to attempt copulation with each other, the lizards still like to try, and occasionally one of the females will start to “act like a male” by attempting to copulate with another female. The lizards evolved from a sexual species and the behavior to copulate like a male -- to engage in fake sex -- is a vestigial behavior; that is, a behavior present in a species, but is expressed in an imperfect form, which in this case, is useless.

Answer 4

Snakes have vestigial limbs, whales have hips

edit
The tail bone IS vestigial. Some people are actually born with tails that need to be cut off. No butt muscles attached there and they're fine without it. And I don't think anyone ever said the pancreas is vestigial. Ask a type 1 diabetic if they think so.

Answer 5

Bryan: humans selectively breed chickens for food. More meat = heavier. Eventually heavier = too heavy to fly.

Answer 6

Whales have "finger bones" in their pectoral fins.

Take a look at a plaice or flounder. It's immediately obvious they are in transition from standard swimmers to bottom swimmers.

Answer 7

Whales have little bone fingers and remenants of hind legs.There's a kind of bird with teeth when they hatch, and claws on their wings. Sea turtles have a little claw-like tippy thing on their flippers.

Answer 8

Why did chicken's loose the ability to fly? It would sure help them with natural selection, if they could fly away from there predetors, and not get slaughtered by the millions. According to natural selection, we evolve to better suite us for surviving in nature. It sure would help them alot.

Tom- Your saying that there two heavy to fly? What about the Taradactyle? That is way heavier than any chicken I know of.

Answer 9

check out whales, as mammals who returned to the sea they had a really interesting evolutionary path that clearly shows the turns they took to get where they are today:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_cetaceans

here's a good snake link (PDF alert)
http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/UG%20courses/mcb204s/snakehox.pdf

Answer 10

Evolution: like finding a suspect and then seaching for a crime.

Anyone can read anything they want into what animals have and don't have. Ah, birds that can't fly and fish with "extra" parts, that's all I need to realize that evolution actually happened. Wink, wink.