Vestigial limb muscles in human embryos show common ancestry—for the

[AllenWitmerMiller (Semi-Expired Professor & Minister.)]

@evograd

Some of the accessory muscles seem to be atavistic . . .

That’s truly quite fascinating—although not at all surprising. (After all, it’s not like atavisms clearly evident in human anatomy are all that unusual, as per wisdom teeth, the appendix, and the coccyx.)

Thanks much for the links!

This topic has led me to start a thread on research into another common human atavism: the musculus palmaris longus. Scientists studied its impact on keyboard exhaustion among musicians:

Human Atavisms: Musculus Palmaris Longus & Keyboard Exhaustion Among Musicians

As a pianist with my very own pair of Musculus Palmaris Longus (PL) structures, I find this research most fascinating: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6099527/ Notice that even though the PL is usually considered to have no impact on grip strength among most people, the paper claims: Moreover, the changes in differences between the dominant and non-dominant hand before and after exertion seem to suggest that presence of Musculus PL may result in more evenly balanced muscle exhaustion specifically among keyboard musicians. As is typically the case in such studies, the small N requires caution. Nevertheless, both the described methodologies and the conclusions are quite fascinating for anyone who has ever done a long concert----or who in their youth insisted on playing Chopin’s Waltz in D-flat major in under a minute just to see if it could actually be done. And because it was a fun way to pick up girls at the sorority houses which had those huge concert grand pianos. …