Ask A Scientist© Biology Archive

 
Question:  What is the proposed purpose for the past use of the appendix?
Jenni

Answer 1:
Good question!! 
Presumably the appendix is a useful organ for lower animals.  Any zoologists out 
there know the answer?
--- jade

Answer 2:  In other animals the appendix is huge and is called the caecum, or sac, 
because it is a dead-end structure.  In rodents, is houses bacteria that have enzymes 
that help the animal digest plant material.  In other mammals or primates, it is thought 
to serve a similar function in the digestion of raw meat.-ProfBill