Slice of Awesome

Neil Shubin, head of the University of Chicago’s anatomy school, claims that hiccups are a remnant of our amphibian ancestry.

Spasms in our diaphragms, hiccups are triggered by electric signals generated in the brain stem. Amphibian brain stems emit similar signals, which control the regular motion of their gills. Our brain stems, inherited from amphibian ancestors, still spurt out odd signals producing hiccups that are, according to Shubin, essentially the same phenomenon as gill breathing.

Source: collision detection