Some do, but get corrective surgery as babies.
[flagged]
[flagged]
Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
11–20 of 247 posts
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#12[flagged]
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#13A tail is grabbable. I'd think in primate fighting, a tail would be big negative. It could be grabbed. Can you imagine Chimp fights if they had tails that could be held on to and the owner dragged around.
The problem might be size, lots of smaller primates have tails which can be very useful as a fifth arm for holding onto branches. As you get larger, tree foraging becomes less viable and the tail less useful and it would need to be oversized to be able to function properly.
Most of animals don't use tails as a fifth arm. My cat seems to use it for extra balance. I think that humans could do that as well.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#14[dead]
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#15A tail is grabbable. I'd think in primate fighting, a tail would be big negative. It could be grabbed. Can you imagine Chimp fights if they had tails that could be held on to and the owner dragged around.
Replace tail by arm in your comment and see what is wrong about it.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#16A tail is grabbable. I'd think in primate fighting, a tail would be big negative. It could be grabbed. Can you imagine Chimp fights if they had tails that could be held on to and the owner dragged around.
I don't follow. You can grab leg and drag owner around. How's tail different?
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#17If we did have rails do you think we would cover it up or keep it out like our hands?
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#18A tail is grabbable. I'd think in primate fighting, a tail would be big negative. It could be grabbed. Can you imagine Chimp fights if they had tails that could be held on to and the owner dragged around.
Replace tail by arm in your comment and see what is wrong about it.
Arms are powerful but tails are not.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem might be size, lots of smaller primates have tails which can be very useful as a fifth arm for holding onto branches. As you get larger, tree foraging becomes less viable and the tail less useful and it would need to be oversized to be able to function properly.
Most of animals don't use tails as a fifth arm. My cat seems to use it for extra balance. I think that humans could do that as well.
Most animals are less dexterous than primates anyway. Humans talk about needing (or name products) a third arm/hand; small monkeys and lemurs and the like swing from them or use like you might imagine we would as an extra limb in climbing.
Re: Scientists have traced human tail loss to a short sequence of genetic code
#20My favorite "Scan Scene" from The Congress (Ari Folman's film based on Stanislaw Lem's novel "The Futurological Congress"), in which Harvey Keitel's character "Al" tells Robin Wright's character "Robin" the twisted tail of "Joey Fairytail"...