In 1893, Robert Wiedersheim published a list of 86 organs that had no known function. Theorizing that they were vestiges of evolution, he called them vestigial.
Today, the list is much smaller but very hotly debated. It still includes the appendix, and coccyx. Many people maintain that as one of these, the coccyx is the remnants of a tail.
Because they are good evidence for evolution in humans, creationists have vigorously attacked the idea of vestigial organs, and often claim that for an organ to be vestigial it must be utterly useless. This is a misrepresentation: an organ now useful for one function, that was once useful for a different function which it can no longer fulfil, is vestigial.
