• Question: If the appendix doesn't have any function why do we have it?

    Asked by Monica Holgado to Stephanie, LauraAnne, Katy, Helen, Emilia, Dan, Andrew on 9 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: LauraAnne Furlong

      LauraAnne Furlong answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      This has been something scientists have been trying to figure out for a very long time, as you would wonder why we have a bit of body which can be so dangerous when it gets inflamed and bursts but doesn’t seem to have any real purpose.

      Scientists now think that it acts as a store of good bacteria for your gut which are completely wiped out if you had something like dysentery or cholera (two horrible infections which cause very diarrhoea). They think that after someone has an infection like these two, that the store of good bacteria in the appendix can migrate and help to restore all the good bacteria to your body, which helps you to function normally again. There’s still a lot of debate about what it actually does, but that seems to be one of the most accepted reasons now. In animals that live on plants, the appendix is much bigger and longer than ours, which makes us think is it somehow related to digestion and being able to get the most out of food (which is what we need our good bacteria in our gut for).

    • Photo: Katy Griggs

      Katy Griggs answered on 9 Nov 2016:

      It has also been recently shown that the appendix has evolved 32 times in mammals. Charles Darwin was the first scientist to investigate the function of the appendix. He hypothesised that the distant ancestors of humans and apes survived on a diet of leaves, and so they required a large portion of the gut that houses bacteria that can break down the plant tissue. These ancestors then shifted to a largely fruit-based diet that was easier to digest. So this portion of the gut began to shrink.

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