Our distant ancestors had several body parts that have become fairly useless over the course of evolution–our wisdom teeth, the tails that are present during the sixth week of gestation, and the ...

One of the most famous fossils in human evolutionary history is known as “Lucy,” who belonged to an extinct species called Australopithecus afarensis—an early relative of Homo sapiens who was among ...

When people are trying hard to listen to something, the body seems to do its best to "prick up its ears," even though this ability was lost by our evolutionary ancestors millions of years ago. That's ...

A mechanism that activates specific muscles in our ears is a leftover from our evolutionary past, back when our ancestors depended more on their hearing for survival. The little muscles that enable ...

Evolution has largely deprived us of our ability to swivel our ears, but those vestigial muscles still activate when we listen intently, according to new research. Reading time: Reading time 3 minutes ...

Human ear muscles that scientists long believed were vestigial are actually activated when we are trying to listen hard, a new study has found. Although the auricular muscles changed the shape of the ...

Editor’s Note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. When the remains of an early human ...

But the auricular muscles might not be so useless after all. By Laura Baisas Published Jan 31, 2025 12:00 AM EST Deposit Photos Get the Popular Science daily ...