How did humans lose their tails?
3 years, 2 months ago

How did humans lose their tails?

The Independent  

Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It’s hard to explain why apes without tails to help them balance wouldn’t have suffered a significant evolutionary disadvantage A bad Uber ride in 2019, in which Xia injured his coccyx, brought it back to his mind with fresh urgency. open image in gallery The question of why humans and apes lost their tails still baffles scientists The mutation that Xia discovered had not been observed before. Xia and his colleagues found that the TBXT mutation doesn’t just shorten tails but also sometimes causes spinal cord defects. “It’s very confusing why they lost their tail,” says Gabrielle Russo, an evolutionary morphologist at Stony Brook University in New York who was not involved in the study.

New York Xia Scientists Health Check Humans Genes Our Ancestors His Colleagues Tails Tail Mutation Apes Tbxt Our Tail  lose  tbxt  humans  mutation  scientists  million  tails  tail  genes  xia  apes

History of this topic

Our ancient animal ancestors had tails. Why don’t we?
9 months, 3 weeks ago

Our ancient animal ancestors had tails. Why don’t we?

LA Times  

Skeletons of a human and a primate await installation at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv. About 20 or 25 million years ago, when apes diverged from monkeys, our branch of the tree of life shed tails. Somewhere around 20 million or 25 million years ago, when apes diverged from monkeys, our branch of the tree of …

Power of evolution: Scientists are trying to answer why and how did our ancestors lose their tails
3 years, 3 months ago

Power of evolution: Scientists are trying to answer why and how did our ancestors lose their tails

Firstpost  

Researchers have identified more than 30 genes involved in the development of tails in various species, from an iguana’s long whip to the stub on a Manx cat. Although it’s impossible to definitively prove that this mutation lopped off our ancestors’ tails, “it’s as close to a smoking gun as one could hope for,” said Cedric Feschotte, a geneticist at …

Discover Related