Norman Swan

So it's when you're gazing into your loved one's eyes and you see in the corner of their eye, you know, next to the nose, a little fold in the conjunctiva.

And that's exactly what it's the vestige of.

Yeah.

So maybe you've married a crocodile.

I mean, who knows?

Have you married a crocodile?

No.

No, no, if you look closely enough, some people do have that fold there, just to a different extent.

I think a lot of people do have the fold, it's just hard to see.

But some people, it encroaches a little bit on the eye.

So, yep, there's the picosemularis.

And then there are the ear muscles.

And very endearing.

So when you see somebody able to wiggle their ears, they're a vestige of a time gone by.

Yeah, danger territory when you start to think that something's vestigial.

Once upon a time, people thought that the pineal gland in the brain was vestigial.

Indeed.

So just because you lack understanding of what an organ does, does not mean that it's actually an unnecessary part of the body.

And as we learn more, we find that things that may have looked as though they were vestigial may in fact not be.

Well, in fact, they used to whip them out even before you got infected as a prophylactic procedure, classically on the kitchen table.