Check out the link in my post #138, it will explain in more detail.
Those growths are still informally called "gills" because they look like gills, and in fish they do grow into gills.
In humans they get absorbed into surrounding tissue and become part of the pharynx -- go ahead, look it up.
I did - that’s why I said it formed into ears.
Our teachers specifically told us these gill slits were used for breathing fluid...along with Haeckel’s Embryo Chart in our text books, which was declared a fraud nearly 100 years earlier.