Vestigial Structures Worksheet
Explore vestigial structures in organisms, understanding their evolutionary significance and examples in humans and other animals.
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Vestigial Structures: Evidence of Evolution
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Read each question carefully and provide thoughtful answers based on your understanding of vestigial structures and evolution.
1. What is the best definition of a vestigial structure?
A structure that has evolved to perform a new function.
A structure that is fully functional and essential for survival.
A structure that has lost its original function through evolution.
A newly evolved structure not found in ancestral species.
2. Which of the following is an example of a vestigial structure in humans?
The heart
Appendix
Lungs
Brain
3. Vestigial structures provide evidence for because they show how organisms have changed over time.
4. The tiny hip bones found in whales are considered vestigial structures, suggesting that whales evolved from land-dwelling .
5. In some caves, blind fish have eyes that are underdeveloped and non-functional. These eyes are an example of a structure.
6. All vestigial structures are completely useless to an organism.
True
False
7. The human coccyx (tailbone) is a vestigial structure.
True
False
8. Explain how the presence of vestigial structures supports the theory of evolution.
9. Describe one example of a vestigial structure in an animal (other than humans or whales) and explain what its original function might have been.