• Question: Do all muscles have a reason of existing?

    Asked by kamilo12 to clairemarieroberts, Faye, Martin, Mus, Pete on 24 Apr 2012.
    • Photo: Pete Etchells

      Pete Etchells answered on 24 Apr 2012:

      Hi kamilo12! That’s an interesting question, and I’m not sure on the absolutely correct answer, but I would guess that every muscle must have had a reason for existing at some time or another, or else we wouldn’t have it. In terms of evolution, if some people have a muscle and some people don’t, but the people that don’t manage to survive absolutely fine, then eventually, over thousands of years, that muscle would disappear from the population. That might be because the muscle will use up energy, even though it’s not particularly useful, and so will put people who have it at a slight disadvantage to those who don’t, which makes it slightly harder for them to survive. This might only be a slightly noticeable difference, but given long enough, it would be lost due to what we call ‘selection pressure’.

      Hope that answers your question!

    • Photo: Faye Didymus

      Faye Didymus answered on 25 Apr 2012:

      Hi kamilo12 – I think Pete is right…I guess every muscle has a reason for existing, even if we don’t use it very often! Our bodies are amazing things and all of our muscles help us in one way or another. There are loads of different types of muscles, including ones that we can see and ones that we can’t. But they’re all very important in their own ways!

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