“40 Years Of Hiding These”: 85 Rare And Unexpected Body Quirks That Left People Fascinated

Looking through this list, you’d be excused for thinking your body is hardly unique. After all, how many of us can say we have a whole extra set of teeth, a naturally forked tongue, or a mysterious spot that glows under UV light? But that doesn’t mean your body is anything less than one of a kind. In fact, as Dr. Sermed Mezher reminds us, each of us has differences that “manifest in our genetic makeup, cognitive processes, emotional responses, life experiences, and even in the microscopic communities of bacteria that live within us.”

That first one—genetic makeup—might seem pretty obvious. You only need to have watched a single episode of CSI to know that DNA can be pretty useful for distinguishing one person from another. But did you know that, according to the National Human Genome Research Institute, any two people’s genomes—complete sets of DNA instructions found in every cell—are typically around 99.6% identical? Don’t let that seemingly small 0.4% margin fool you, though.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, humans show considerable genetic variation, with no two people—apart from identical twins—being genetically identical. Most of these genetic differences have little or no noticeable effect, but some contribute to differences in physical appearance, aspects of personality and susceptibility to disease. And genetic differences can also influence more than what we can see or easily measure. As Dr. Mezher explains, “These genetic differences” can also influence “how we metabolize food, and how we perceive the world around us.”

While genetic differences might account for some of the anomalies on this list, it’s worth remembering that all of our bodies are perhaps even stranger than we often realize. Much of what happens inside us is hidden from view: many of our cells are constantly being replaced, electrical signals are firing, and bone is continually being broken down and rebuilt. We rarely give any of this a second thought because, as Cris Tolomia, writing for Quartz, puts it, “that smoothness is the trick. The body only draws attention to itself when something goes wrong, so the ordinary state of being alive tends to hide the parts that are genuinely peculiar.”

And maybe that’s part of what makes the human body so fascinating: what we consider “ordinary” is often really just the version of it we happen to experience every day, and no two people’s ordinary looks quite the same. In that sense, although some of the anomalies featured on this list might be pretty rare, they’re part of a bigger picture. The human body is full of quirks, variations and peculiarities, many of which we simply go through life without noticing.

And so, while most of us only have eight fingers, two thumbs and ten toes, we each have our own unique traits—maybe a lopsided smile, an oddly shaped ear, or a tongue that reaches the tip of our nose. Because being different, it seems, isn’t the exception; it’s the rule. It’s just that noticing it sometimes requires a closer look.