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DARWIN ON VESTIGES. "Along with paleontological evidence from the fossil record and biogeographic evidence from species distributions, Darwin turned, naturally, to comparative anatomy, citing such well-known topics as homologous and analogous (convergent) features and similarities in skeletons and patterns of embryonic development. Darwin cited another prominent finding of comparative anatomy as an obvious line of evidence for evolution: vestigial features." http://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

EMBRYONIC VESTIGES. "Numerous embryonic rudiments may be retained as recognizable remnants in later developmental stages of animals and plants, including adults." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

"PROGRESSIVE NOTIONS of natural philosophy and theology were simmering in Victorian England when, in 1844, the scientific establishment was rocked by the anonymous publication of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (Chambers [1844]). This best-selling book presented, in a highly accessible format, then-radical ideas on cosmic and biological evolution." http://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

GOOSE BUMPS. "Piloerection, leading to ‘goose bumps’ or ‘goose pimples,’ can be considered a vestigial phenomenon in mostly hairless humans, and the arrector pili smooth muscles that pull on hair follicles and cause this autonomic reflex can be viewed as vestigial structures." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

SO ENDS this thought about transient beauty and imperfection in nature and the suchness of things, one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete". The Japanese morning glory plant, which closes every day, and was bred to perfection in the Edo period in Japan is one symbol of this view of nature. There is no real equivalent of this sentiment of Wabi-Sabi in western culture, which focuses on beauty and perfection derived from Greek thinking. The next weekend Fragment continues with the morning glory. View in LinkedIn

"THE PALMAR GRASP REFLEX of human babies is thought to be a vestige from ancestral primates, where offspring needed a firm grasp of their mothers’ fur as they were carried." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

VESTIGIAL BEHAVIORS. "The instinct in dogs to turn in a circle multiple times before lying down, presumably, though not assuredly, to tramp down a bed of grass." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

VESTIGIAL AORTIC ARCHES. "Ductus caroticus (as persistent third aortic arch). The carotid duct or ductus caroticus remains in some postnatal vertebrates (lungfishes and some amphibians and reptiles) as a remnant of the original embryonic connection between the third and fourth aortic arches." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

ALLANTOIS VESTIGE. "The median umbilical ligament, a remnant of the urinary urachus, itself an embryonic remnant of the allantois," (an embryonic gas exchange membrane). https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn

MORE UMBILICAL VESTIGES. "Umbilical arteries → umbilical ligaments, and the superior vesicular artery supplying the urinary bladder. Umbilical arteries give way to a functional section of the internal iliac arteries and superior vesicular artery that delivers blood to the dorsal portion of the urinary bladder, as well as a non-functional, obliterated portion (which led to the umbilical cord) that becomes the medial umbilical ligament." https://evolution-outreach.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12052-014-0012-5 View in LinkedIn