In the bodies of modern people have found the bone that disappeared during evolution.

In the course of evolution some parts of the humanthe bodies became useless, and even began to fade. A striking example is the bone called fabella, which was located behind the knee and was of extremely small size. In modern people, it is extremely rare, so scientists are not even interested in its function - we only know that it is often found in people with osteoarthritis. Over the past hundred years, for some reason, she began to appear more often in the skeletons of people, which is why the question arises - what is the reason for her return?

The discovery was made by researchers fromImperial College in London, who studied the anatomy of people on the basis of 58 scientific works of scientists from different countries. It turned out that in 1875 this small bone was found in 17% of people, and by 2018 its prevalence had increased 3.5 times - it was found in the legs of 39% of the world's inhabitants.

It is classified as a sesamoid bone -they are usually located in the thickness of the tendons and adjacent to other bones. Scientists believe that it, like other similar bones, can serve to reduce friction in the tendons. At the same time, a huge number of people are doing fine without it, so scientists are wondering - what is the reason for its active return?

One hypothesis is that its revival canto be associated with the improved diet of modern people - compared to the inhabitants of previous centuries, modern people began to eat better, they grew taller and gained weight. This caused an increased load on the knee area, which is why some people could grow fabella.

Perhaps this bone has never disappeared - becauseits tiny size, autopsy and x-rays simply could not detect it. Now researchers have tomographic devices that easily detect even the smallest objects.

To understand this question, researchersintend to collect more data and divide them by age, location and other parameters of people. According to Professor Michael Berthaum, bone may not really have an important function, but cause painful arthritis. If it really is a source of problems, surgeons will be able to remove it to eliminate them.

On the subject of parts of the human body thatlost the need for the evolution process, we recommend reading our special material. It lists the parts of the body that many people still have, but they do not bring any benefit.

Do you think fabella does any good or harm? Share your bold assumptions in the comments, or in our Telegram-chat.