Ear Furtling

5 Comments

Comment by Clement Rhein on June 29, 2008 at 8:29am

Do YOU know what it means? Why it may have been useful at some point?... I don't have any :(

Comment by Mary on June 29, 2008 at 10:17pm

You're not as special as me then. ;) I bet you can roll your tongue though...?

As far as I know it's vestigial from when ears were pointy - the tubercle would have formed the point. But answers to any of the other potential questions allude me: Why is it vestigial? Why does the genotype have variable penetration (so one ear can have it but not the other)? I love the human body - so silly sometimes. :)

Comment by Clement Rhein on June 30, 2008 at 4:43pm

I CAN roll my tongue, but only clockwise!!! :-)

Comment by Ronan O'Brien on June 30, 2008 at 10:37pm

I don't but I happen to know that Shambhu does!

Comment by Mary on August 5, 2008 at 1:29pm

As a further point of interest, while I was in Canada I happened to sit behind a guy on the bus who had quite pointy ears, reminiscent of a cat, just where Darwin's tubercle is placed. I'm familiar with surgical body modifications to make ears pointy, but this definitely looked natural.

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