Happy Atheist Forum

I, among many people, can move my ears. This is a common, though useless, trait among humans.

I'm looking at my cats. They move their ears to enhance their ability to hear prey or predator coming from a given direction. Dogs cock their heads not from confusion but to hear the subject better. Did early human ancestors do this? Yes, small monkeys have this ability. Monkeys evolved into apes and apes evolved into humans. So how does this trait remain after a few hundred thousand of years of not needing it?

here's the wikipedia page on other vestigial traits. I found it quite interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial)

Luck. If the traits end up being dominant, but don't hinder survival, there's no reason for them to be lost.

hmm simple and yet your answer explains everything. Thanks ^_^

Quote from: "Stoicheion"hmm simple and yet your answer explains everything. Thanks ^_^

And, for all I know, completely wrong. It's what you'd call nothing more than an educated guess.

makes enough sense to me [shrug]

Mutations are key to natural selection.  If we didn't have them, we couldn't have existed.  Who knows, your ear wiggling trait could help you to communicate with birds -or maybe god. << ear wigglin'

While I can't move my ears no matter how hard I try on my own, if I hear a sudden sharp noise whichever ear is closer twitches. Same as other aniimals, their ear movement is probaly as involuntary and complety natural.

Quote from: "Stoicheion"I, among many people, can move my ears. This is a common, though useless, trait among humans.

I'm looking at my cats. They move their ears to enhance their ability to hear prey or predator coming from a given direction. Dogs cock their heads not from confusion but to hear the subject better. Did early human ancestors do this? Yes, small monkeys have this ability. Monkeys evolved into apes and apes evolved into humans. So how does this trait remain after a few hundred thousand of years of not needing it?

here's the wikipedia page on other vestigial traits. I found it quite interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestigial)

The highlighted bit is not correct - no currently existing species evolved from another currently existing species, it doesn't work like that.  The correct formulation is that monkeys, apes and humans share a common ancestor.  Chimpanzees are our nearest relatives (closer than the gorilla or other large apes), i.e. we share our most recent common ancestor with chimps.  That common ancestor was neither human nor chimpanzee.  

If you're interested in vestigial characters I can recommend this site: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/ (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/comdesc/).  Part 2 deals with a bunch of different kinds of vestigial characters (although I can thoroughly recommend the whole lot, if you have the time!).  

Quote from: "curiosityandthecat"Luck. If the traits end up being dominant, but don't hinder survival, there's no reason for them to be lost.

Quote from: "curiosityandthecat"

Quote from: "Stoicheion"hmm simple and yet your answer explains everything. Thanks ^_^

And, for all I know, completely wrong. ;)