Explained: How human beings lost their tails
Current Affairs A team of scientists in New York say they have pinpointed the genetic mutation that may have erased our tails. When the scientists made this genetic tweak in mice, the animals didnāt grow tails, according to a new study that was posted online last week.
This dramatic anatomical change had a profound impĀact on our evolution. Our anĀcestorsā tail muscles evolved into a hammock-like mesh across the pelvis.
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When the ancestors of humans stood up and walked on two legs a few million years ago, that muscuĀlar hammock was ready to support the weight of upright organs.
Although itās impossible to definitively prove that this mutation lopped off our ancĀesĀtorsā tails, āitās as close to a smoking gun as one could hope for,ā said Cedric FescĀhĀotte, a geneticist at Cornell...Read Ā more.
