Vestigial structure — Science definition
Defined in 2 courses:
- A feature reduced from a larger ancestral form, such as a whale's hip bones; reduced is the claim, not useless. (Life Science & Scientific Inquiry)
- A reduced, often nonfunctional structure that is a leftover of a fully functional feature in an ancestor, such as the human appendix or the internal hip bones of a whale. (Life Science: Biology)
Where it is taught
- Common Ancestry, Evidence & Branching Trees — Evolution, Evidence & Life History, Life Science & Scientific Inquiry, Grade 7
- Evidence for Evolution — Evolution, Ancestry & Biodiversity, Life Science: Biology, Grade 10
Taught alongside
- common ancestor
- homologous structure
- phylogenetic tree
- node
- homologous structures
- analogous structures
- transitional fossil
- biogeography
- molecular evidence