Vestigial organs

Resources

Claim CB360: Vestigial organs may have functions.

Claim CB360.1: The human appendix is functional, not vestigial.

Claim CB361: Vestigial organs are just evidence of decay, not evolution.

Claim CB361.1: Presently useless vestigial organs once had function.

Brief responses in the Index to Creationist Claims in the TalkOrigins Archive.

No Genes were Lost in the Making of this Whale

Brief post by biologist P. Z. Myers on his Pharyngula blog. The genes for hind limbs are still present in cetaceans and start to be expressed in the embryo but the resulting limb buds are then reabsorbed.

True Vestigial Structures in Whales and Dolphins

Article by Ernest C. Conrad in the journal Creation/Evolution on the website of the National Center for Science Education. The bibliography is missing from this version but is available in the PDF format of the issue in which this article appears.

The Evolution of Creation Science, Part 1: Vestigial Structures and Biological Degeneration

Article by Philip J. Senter and Jared J. Mackey in the journal Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith. Broadly reviews the creationist literature to see the variety of creationist claims about various vestigial structures and discusses the misuse of scientific terms and how claims of degeneration and simultaneous denial of vestigial structures are incongruous. The full issue in which this article appears is also available.