Appendix has a function, Fact or fiction?

● Table of contents
● Appendix, what is it?
● What's its function? Is it important?
● Evolution of the appendix
● How future generations may not have an appendix
● What other mammals have an appendix and what is its function and role in their lives?
● TWO QUESTIONS (ask and answered)
- Can we live without an Appendix, and how would that affect our life?
- What are common reasons we get our appendix removed? (appendicitis).
● Meme

● Conclusion, FACT OR FICTION- EXPLAIN

● Bibliography

For many years, scientists believed the appendix was a vestigial organ —
one that lost its original function through centuries of evolution.

Researchers thought that no other mammals had an appendix, aside from

our closest ape relatives.

What’s more, the cecum (a part of the large intestine) of plant-eating

mammals is far larger than it is in humans.
On this basis, Charles Darwin theorized that our distant ancestors also
had large ceca, which allowed them to dine on leaves like the herbivores
of today.

But as these ancestors shifted to a diet based on fruits, which are easier to
digest, their ceca shrank. The appendix, Darwin believed, is just a
shriveled up part of the cecum, which evolution hasn’t entirely eliminated.
(4)

The appendix is a thin, roughly four-inch-long tube that’s part of your

gastrointestinal (GI) tract. (1)
https://www.everydayhealth.com/appendicitis/guide/appendix/

ANIMALS AND APPENDIX

the appendix has evolved at least twice, once among Australian marsupials and
another time among rats, lemmings and other rodents, selected primates and humans.
"We also figure that the appendix has been around for at least 80 million years, much
longer than we would estimate if Darwin's ideas about the appendix were correct."
Darwin theorized that the appendix in humans and other primates was the evolutionary
remains of a larger structure, called a cecum, which was used by now- extinct ancestors
for digesting food.
First, several living species, including certain lemurs, several rodents and a type of
flying squirrel, still have an appendix attached to a large cecum which is used in
digestion.
Second, Parker says the appendix is actually quite widespread in nature.
"For example, when species are divided into groups called 'families', we find that more
than 70 percent of all primate and rodent groups contain species with an appendix."
Darwin had thought that appendices appeared in only a small handful of animals.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090820175901.htm
But some scientists have challenged the idea that the appendix serves no purpose. It's
been clear for about a century that the structure contains a particular type of tissue
belonging to the lymphatic system. This system carries the white blood cells that help
fight infections. Within the last decade, research has shown that this lymphatic tissue
encourages the growth of some kinds of beneficial gut bacteria. What's more, careful
anatomical study of other mammals has revealed that species as diverse as beavers,
koalas, and porcupines also have a structure jutting off of their guts in exactly the
same place as our appendix—in other words, the feature is much more common
among mammals than once thought .
compiled information on the diets of 361 living mammals, including 50 species now
considered to have an appendix, and plotted the data on a mammalian evolutionary
tree. They found that the 50 species are scattered so widely across the tree that the
structure must have evolved independently at least 32 times, and perhaps as many as
38 times.
By plotting the dietary information onto the evolutionary tree, the researchers could
work out whether the appendix appears when a particular group of mammals changes
its diet. In most cases, there was no sign of a dietary shift, suggesting appendix
evolution doesn't necessarily proceed as Darwin thought. He may have correctly
identified the origin of the ape appendix, though, which the analysis confirms did
appear when our ancestors switched diets.

evolutionary theories suggest that it might have played a role in digestion of food. A
great deal of evidence suggests that the appendix is a vestigial or evolutionary remnant,
which means the appendix of our ancestors served a specific purpose.

Several biologists support the theory that the appendix is a vestigial organ that was
once used by our herbivorous ancestors. It was found that in herbivorous vertebrates,
the appendix is comparatively larger and it helped in the digestion of tough herbivorous
food such as the bark of a tree.

Some studies suggest that as ancient humans were predominantly herbivorous, they
used their appendixes for digestion. However, as humans evolved, they started to
include more easily digestible food in their diet and the appendix eventually lost it
function. There are scientists who believe that in time the appendix will eventually
disappear from the human body.
SEPERATE
not vestigial, asserting that it has some function either to the immune system or as a
repository for a gut bacteria in case diarrhea or cholera were to flush the gut biome from the
body.

that the appendix has an immunological role, acting as a "safe house" for beneficial
gut bacteria. These bacteria help train the immune system and can prevent diseases by
outcompeting dangerous pathogenic bacteria—but there are times when the dangerous
microbes gain the upper hand and overrun the gut. The researchers reasoned that when
this happens, the beneficial bacteria could retreat to the safety of the appendix, which
remains unaffected. Once the immune system has beaten the infection, the beneficial
bacteria emerge from the appendix to quickly recolonize the gut.

The appendix, they said, is a safe haven where good bacteria could
hang out until they were needed to repopulate the gut after a nasty
case of diarrhea,