Cases where babies were born with a tail have been known for a long time and have been described many times. Hundreds of years ago, the tail of European man caused superstitious fear, and the fate of the unfortunate tailed babies, recognized as servants of the Devil, was sad.
And at the same time, such a child was very lucky if he was born in India. One of the revered deities in Hinduism, the monkey-like Hanuman, is described in the great epic “Ramayana”. Tailed children were considered sacred messengers of Hanuman. Pilgrims lined up in kilometer-long queues just to touch the divine tail and receive a blessing.
Scientific explanation
The tail in humans is an atavism; it is not as functional as in small monkeys. To do this, it must have muscles and vertebrae, but they don’t. It is formed by germinal tissue if the development of the human embryo deviates slightly from the norm, and this rarely happens. At the same time, a person’s tail, as an atavistic appendage, is clear evidence that the distant ancestors of homo sapiens undoubtedly had a tail. Why did they lose it? Look at the behavior of small monkeys - macaques and monkeys. The tail plays the role of a fifth hand for them. It is strong enough to support their light weight while freeing their limbs. With the growth of the monkey's body weight, the thickness of the tail muscle rapidly increased until it became an obstacle to existence in conditions where it was not necessary to hang on trees for a long time.
With the evolution of the ape-like ancestors of humans (movement on the ground, the transition to walking upright on the hind legs), the human tail, as a supporting and balancing organ, “was left without work”, and over time disappeared as unnecessary. Its function was successfully taken over by other organs. But its remnant is still present in the human skeleton - this is the coccyx.
Previously, it was believed that a person with a tail in the embryonic state reflects the process of evolution: from the coelenterate hydra, through the stage of a fish with gills, then through the stage of an animal with a tail and to, in fact, a person. Serious scientists were confident that this irrefutably proved Darwin's theory about the origin of man from the animal world. This is true, but the development of the embryo has nothing to do with it: from its very first day it is precisely a person and no one else.
The tail in a person in the embryonic stage is explained by the large number of vertebrae laid down in the womb (38 versus 33-34 in an adult) - so to speak, in advance, taking into account its slow development in comparison with other organs. It appears at the turn of the 1st and 2nd months of embryonic development. Then, during the 3rd month, a partial restructuring of the skeleton occurs with the reduction of “extra” vertebrae. The baby is born with a normal spine.
Cases of the birth of a child with atavism in the form of a tail-shaped appendage from soft tissues are extremely rare. But if this happens, it’s okay. It’s just that the first days of the baby’s life will be marked by a simple surgical operation. Considering that a newborn has a high ability to regenerate tissue, such an operation almost always takes place without complications.
Alas, the human tail can be inherited over several generations. One well-known scientific “collection” contains 116 facts of cases of the appearance of a tail in humans, among which 52 cases relate to males, and only 16 to females. Such an anomaly can be passed on from generation to generation in any race.
Today it is rare to see such anomalies because surgery to eliminate the tail after birth is very simple. Most adult tails can be found in countries with large poor populations, such as China or India.
“Tailed” examples in history
In 1910, traveler W. Sloan described his extraordinary discovery. In the depths of the desert of New Guinea, he met a tribe of natives, each of whom had a tail, or rather, a process at the back no longer than a dog's tail. In this regard, houses built on stilts had holes in the floor through which residents stuck their tails out while sleeping. They slept on the bare floor. Members of the Paris Anthropological Society were very skeptical about this discovery.
There have been descriptions of such tribes in the past, but none of these descriptions have been confirmed. Already in the 13th century, for example, Marco Polo wrote that every single one of the inhabitants of Sumatra had tails, like those of a dog.
In 1890, scientist Paul d'Enjoy caught a member of the Indo-Chinese Moi tribe who had a twenty-five-centimeter tail. The researcher assured that all representatives of the Moi tribe have tails, but from generation to generation the tails become shorter and shorter as a result of crossing with tailless neighboring tribes.
The skepticism of French anthropologists diminished a little in 1928, when a certain Dr. Nedeles found an eight-year-old boy in Saigon with a 15-centimeter tail. The photograph he took of this miracle of nature gained worldwide fame.
In 1930, Dr. Velazquez of San Pedro informed the public that one day while swimming in the sea near San Truilo in Honduras, he saw on the beach “a Caribbean woman who had thrown off her clothes, exposing a tail of at least 20 centimeters, from the appearance of which one can it was judged that it was shortened.”
In the 60s, in an ordinary Pskov village, a man with a tail was found. A naked man was found in the backyard of a private home. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that it had no genitals, but did have a tail. Many, seeing him for the first time, mistook him for the devil. So his nickname remained - “damn.”
Later, residents said that in fact this is the son of a local woman who gave birth to a boy with physical disabilities. The woman hid her child from the outside world and kept him locked up. However, after her death, there was no one to look after the boy and sometimes he wandered the streets of the village at night. Then this strange man disappeared without a trace, his fate is unknown.
Indian Chandra
In the Alipurduar region of India, locals believe that 35-year-old Indian Chandra with a 14.5-inch tail is the Hindu monkey deity Hanuman. Many people gather near his home in West Bengal to receive blessings and touch his tail.
Because of his tail, Chandra could not get married for a long time, but he still found the woman who fell in love with him. Chandra's wife is three years older than him, but this does not bother him. Chandre is now planning to build his own temple so that all people can receive mass blessings.
Indian Arshid Ali Khan
A boy from India, whom locals perceive as the earthly incarnation of the monkey god Hanuman due to a genetic abnormality, planned to get rid of his peculiarity. Doctors recommended that Arshid Ali Khan get rid of the 17-centimeter tail growing from his lower back. At the same time, the teenager spoke about his innate feature as follows:
This tail was given to me by God. Many people come to me for help, and I pray for their wishes to come true. And they come true. And I’m quite calm about the tail itself.
A congenital feature prevents Ali Khan from leading a normal lifestyle for any teenager: he is forced to move in a wheelchair. Doctors cannot definitively diagnose him, as some are inclined to believe that the tail is the result of spina bifida, others that it is a congenital spina bifida. At the same time, doctors almost unanimously advise removing the appendage.
While Arshid Ali Khan himself has not yet made a decision, the boy’s family is skeptical about the doctors’ recommendations. The teenager is confident that even if doctors remove his tail, people will not stop asking him for help and mistaking him for the incarnation of Hanuman.
Arshid Ali Khan may compete with Amar Singh, who is 11 years younger and has grown a 30-centimeter ponytail from his hair on his lower back. He is also worshiped as a deity by the people of his native village in Uttar Pradesh.
Materials used from websites
It's no secret that people are sometimes born with tails... Surgeons immediately remove this annoying anatomical excess.
Continue reading inside...
The debate has been going on for centuries. Moreover, the human embryo at certain stages of development is suspiciously similar to animal embryos: it also has a tail, which then disappears due to the so-called apoptosis (the programmed death of unnecessary cells). A lot of noise was made at one time by an article in which it was argued that for millions of years we have been storing the genes responsible for the tail in our ape-like ancestors and other mammals. But we don’t use these genes, and only in some people do they “wake up” for no reason at all, and then a person is born, for example, with a tail. A real tail should be like a continuation of the spine, contain bone or cartilage structures, nerves, muscles, etc. And most importantly, it can move depending on situations and emotions. The “true tail” of a newborn can be 2-12 cm in length.
Alas, the human tail can be inherited in several generations. One well-known scientific “collection” contains 116 facts about cases of the appearance of a tail in humans, among which 52 are male and only 16 are female. So, have women moved further from their ape-like ancestors? Well, which man would agree with this?! And generally speaking. If, for example, newborn girls sometimes have mammary glands located under their arms, like some bats, does that mean we evolved from bats?
Research results
Does a person have a tail or not?
It would seem that the answer to this question is obvious. Of course, No ! But not everything is as simple as it seems at first! A survey of my classmates yielded the following results:
From 19 classmates interviewed 15 believe that a person does not have a tail, and 4 answered that he does.
It's funny, but a person has a tail There is . Until a certain period. It is known that human embryos do have a noticeable tail during early development. However, as the body grows, all parts of the body surrounding the tail grow faster, making it eventually invisible. The tail stops growing in size and becomes just one of the bones in the human body - tailbone!
Coccyx- this is a continuation of the spine, which consists of 4-5 fused vertebrae, has a triangular shape
The tailbone itself is a tail.
Why does a person need a tailbone?
The tailbone is important in the body. The muscles and ligaments of the organs of the genitourinary system are attached to the coccyx, and part of the gluteal muscles is also attached to the coccyx. The coccyx serves to distribute the load on the pelvic organs and is used as a fulcrum when sitting. There are many nerve endings attached to the coccyx. Therefore, if coccyx injuries occur, they are characterized by very severe pain.
Origin. Version 1.
The tailbone is the former tail.
It's all about evolution. The coccyx is a rudiment of a person. That is part
body, which in the process of evolution seemed to have fallen out of use and
the body no longer needs it. This means that previously the tailbone was a tail, which served our ancestors to maintain balance and helped primitive people communicate with each other. Previously, the tail was much longer. Over time, upright posture and walking on the hind legs made the tail an unnecessary part. What we are now seeing at the bottom of the spine is our ex tail.
We have much more in common with the animal kingdom than we might imagine.
The tailbone is a potential tail.
Perhaps this organ began to develop, but at some stage its development stopped. Therefore, having a tailbone in humans does not prove that we had a tail in the past. But if it didn’t exist in the past, does that mean it is saved for use in the future? Perhaps in the future for all people the tail will grow back ! If a person has some potential opportunity, then he can realize it. The tailbone is a potential tail and a person has the potential ability to swing the tail! Is it possible that a person will someday have a tail?
What kind of tail would we have?
I conducted a survey among my classmates - what kind of tail they would like to have. Here are his results: Tail:
like the FOX, 1 out of 19 respondents would like,
like the MONKEY - 5,
like LION - 5,
like a CAT - 6,
like LEMURE - 1,
like CROCODILE - 1 person.
Why do we need a tail?
How much would tails change people's lives?!
Sometimes we really miss the tail! How could he make our life easier... For example, you’re walking home from school, in one hand you have a bag with a change of shoes, and in the other you have skis and nothing to open the door... But if only there was a tail... how nice: you can open and close the door ! A mosquito has bitten you on the leg, and you are lying comfortably on your back and scratching your leg with its tail. And if it had a tassel of hair at the end, it would be absolutely wonderful. With a little practice, you can use your tail to learn to write, draw, and type on a computer. You can walk with friends with their tails clasped together, turn the pages of books with your tail, and in winter hide your face in fur.
If people had tails, it would be much more difficult for them to hide their emotions. A cat wags its tail when it is angry, and a dog when it is happy, but what emotions would we express with our tail? The tail would have to be looked after (some would take it to the hairdresser).
Parable about happiness
Walking down the street one day, an old cat saw a young kitten. He ran in a circle, trying to grab his tail. The old cat, who had seen a lot, watched with interest the baby, who was so carried away that he did not even notice his falls. “Tell me the secret, dear, what makes you chase your tail?” he asked the kitten. “Someone just told me that my tail is my happiness,” the kitten answered, “that’s why I want to catch it.” The old cat stretched out in such a smile that you can only see on an old cat, and said:
You know, when I was like you, I was told the same thing. How many days and nights did I spend chasing this tail - I didn’t drink or eat anything because I couldn’t think about anything other than this. Falling exhausted, I got up again and made every effort to finally catch my tail. And then came the moment of despair. I no longer needed anything, and I wandered wherever my eyes were looking. And do you know what happened? - What?. - the kitten asked with interest. - I saw that my tail was following me everywhere I went. Wherever I am, my happiness is always with me, I just need to remember this!
A little help:
It seems that the dream of “having a tail” may soon come true! Smart Japanese have come up with Tailly - an electronic tail for a person that looks and behaves like a real one. The device responds to movement and heart rate - the faster your heart beats, the more the tail will wag.
A. Usachev
Of course, you will tell us.
What are tails for? The tail is attached to cows to drive away flies and mosquitoes. For the fish to row, and for the boa to crawl. Crocodiles to fight, Monkeys to cling. Many animals need a tail. Cover your nose in winter. To confuse the trail is the fox's. For the peacock - for beauty. There are tails to wag
Threaten and show off... Tails are needed for everything, including beauty.
And what’s offensive is that EVERYONE has a tail, but people don’t... the injustice is obvious.
And I actually want wings......
Bibliography:
- < > < > < > < >
Great Medical Encyclopedia, 2007.
Human anatomy. Volume 2, 1986.
Usachev A. Such a Great Gift
Internet sources:
The manifestation in a descendant of characteristics characteristic of its distant ancestors
The appearance of degenerate characteristics
A bodily reminder of past evolution
The appearance of signs of distant ancestors
The appearance of characteristics characteristic of distant ancestors
The tailbone as a reminder to us of distant ancestors
When a person has a tail
Three-toed horses
Reversion of the organism, rudiments
"echo" of ancestors in evolution
Human tailbone
Sign of a distant ancestor
Signs of distant ancestors
Sign of distant ancestors
Biological greetings from the past
Sign from an ancestor
Presence in descendants of characteristics inherent in ancestors
The appearance in humans, animals or plants of characteristics characteristic of their distant ancestors
The appearance of a sign of distant ancestors in a descendant
Tail in humans
It's funny, but a person has a tail. Until a certain period. It is known that human embryos do have a noticeable tail during early development. However, as the body grows, all parts of the body surrounding the tail grow many times faster, making it ultimately invisible. Ultimately, the tail stops growing in size and becomes just one of the bones in the human body - the tailbone.
However, there have been cases when the tailbone grew higher than expected and turned into a small short tail, which is a violation and atavism. The coccyx itself is a vestigial tail, which in the process of evolution ceased to be necessary. However, although it is a rudiment, the coccyx has not lost its functional significance in the body and has not become a useless bone. The muscles and ligaments of the organs of the genitourinary system are attached to the coccyx, and part of the gluteal muscles is also attached to the coccyx. The coccyx serves to distribute the load on the pelvic organs and is used as a fulcrum when sitting.
The coccyx consists of four to five stuck together vertebrae, is inactive, it almost never moves throughout a person’s life, except during the birth process, when it moves, expanding the birth canal.
The most common deviations from the norm in the coccyx are an abnormal angle of deviation and the process of fusion of the coccyx with the rest of the spine. There are many nerve endings attached to the coccyx, so the coccyx often hurts in diseases of a neurotic nature. Injuries to the coccyx occur very often; they are characterized by very severe pain, precisely because of the many nerve endings. If a child is born with an atavism - an initially existing tail, then immediately after birth he will have his first surgical operation in his life - tail removal. Most often, this operation takes place without any complications due to the high ability of the baby’s body to regenerate.
A person’s tail is not a sign of the devil, but a reminder of distant ancestors
Cases where babies were born with a tail have been known for a long time and have been described many times. Hundreds of years ago, the tail of European man caused superstitious fear, and the fate of the unfortunate tailed babies, recognized as servants of the Devil, was sad. And at the same time, such a child was very lucky if he was born in India. One of the revered deities in Hinduism, the monkey-like Hanuman, is described in the great epic Ramayana. Tailed children were considered sacred messengers of Hanuman. Pilgrims lined up in kilometer-long queues just to touch the divine tail and receive a blessing.
Why did they lose it? Look at the behavior of small monkeys. The tail plays the role of a fifth hand for them. It is strong enough to support their light weight while freeing their limbs. With the growth of the monkey's body weight, the thickness of the tail muscle rapidly increased until it became an obstacle to existence in conditions where it was not necessary to hang on trees for a long time.
Agree that everyone who has studied in a domestic secondary school has in the “background” the mindset that we all descended from monkeys. The logical question that arises among children and adults is why we, the proud heirs of orangutans and monkeys, are deprived of a tail. In fact, why? We will try to explain this to you!
For example, let's look at the monkey. This animal, due to its tenacious and dexterous tail, can spend a long time upside down, hanging from a tree branch. Scientists have proven that the level of performance of an animal limb should be proportional to the 3rd degree of the length of the limb. Accordingly, the larger and more massive the animal, the shorter its wings, flippers, paws, legs, etc. should be.
The baboon, unlike the monkey, lacks a tail. This animal is much larger than its relative and is capable of leading an almost terrestrial lifestyle. What can we say about us people, the crowns of nature. We are deprived of this decoration, since the presence of such a “process” would simply be impractical in the conditions of terrestrial life with upright walking.
One can agree with the theory of evolution or not, however, it is difficult to argue with the fact that nature has not conceived anything that could hinder the progressive development of the creatures inhabiting the planet.
Imagine a person with a tail that wags when he has strong emotions. Interesting? More like funny. This unusual gadget that the Japanese released was included in the list of the most useful inventions in the world!
One can, of course, argue about its usefulness, since people have many ways to express their feelings. The most difficult is human language, although it also helps us hide emotions. However, there is also body language: involuntary muscle movements that are difficult to veil or distort. The tail is apparently designed to demonstrate our feelings more clearly and clearly.
In humans, the appearance of an artificial tail will negate the achievements of evolution in this matter, returning to us what nature considered unnecessary many millennia ago.
Why do animals need tails?
In animals, tails perform many functions, serving as a fulcrum or rudder, an additional “hand” or balance, a means of attracting individuals of the opposite sex and expressing emotions. To list all the tasks of this “attribute” of our little brothers would require more than one page.
So, the Japanese invention will also help, for example, to hang on the tail to keep your hands free during complex work at height, or our kids will - God forbid! - swing on your tails, catching them on the chandeliers?
What can a person's tail do?
The inventors do not provide all the functions that animal tails have for the new accessory. The role of the tail in humans is very limited. He will simply wag his new acquisition when he feels joy and sympathy and his excitement begins to grow. This will be a great way to show your love, the authors say.
Tailed people
In 1910, traveler W. Sloan described his extraordinary discovery. In the depths of the desert of New Guinea, he met a tribe of natives, each of whom had a tail, or rather, a process at the back no longer than a dog's tail.
In this regard, houses built on stilts had holes in the floor through which residents stuck their tails out while sleeping. They slept on the bare floor. Members of the Paris Anthropological Society were very skeptical about this discovery.
In 1890, scientist Paul d'Enjoy caught a member of the Indo-Chinese Moi tribe who had a twenty-five-centimeter tail. The researcher assured that all Moi have tails, but from generation to generation the tails become shorter and shorter as a result of crossing with tailless neighboring tribes.
The skepticism of French anthropologists diminished a little in 1928, when a certain Dr. Nedeles found an eight-year-old boy in Saigon with a 15-centimeter tail.
The photograph he took of this miracle of nature gained worldwide fame.
In 1930, Dr. Velazquez of San Pedro informed the public that one day while swimming in the sea near San Truilo in Honduras, he saw on the beach “a Caribbean woman who had thrown off her clothes, exposing a tail of at least 20 centimeters, from the appearance of which one could judge that it is shortened."
It is generally accepted that there are no races of tailed people anywhere and never have existed, but occasionally individual individuals with a tail are born. Such an anomaly can be passed on from generation to generation in any race.
The last vertebrae of the human fetus are enlarged. As the fetus develops, the tail bone gradually shrinks and is not visible at all at birth. What causes the aberration that results in the long tail is unknown. Could this be a backward movement in evolutionary development?
Today it is rare to see such anomalies because surgery to eliminate the tail after birth is very simple.
Mostly such anomalies in adults can be found in poor countries such as China or India. In the latter, such people are considered the incarnation of local deities, for example the monkey king Hanuman.
World of secrets
Unknown and amazing
People with tails - is this so unusual?
Cases where babies were born with a tail have been known for a long time and have been described many times. Hundreds of years ago, the tail of European man caused superstitious fear, and the fate of the unfortunate tailed babies, recognized as servants of the Devil, was sad.
And at the same time, such a child was very lucky if he was born in India. One of the revered deities in Hinduism, the monkey-like Hanuman, is described in the great epic “Ramayana”. Tailed children were considered sacred messengers of Hanuman. Pilgrims lined up in kilometer-long queues just to touch the divine tail and receive a blessing.
Scientific explanation
The tail in humans is an atavism; it is not as functional as in small monkeys. To do this, it must have muscles and vertebrae, but they don’t. It is formed by germinal tissue if the development of the human embryo deviates slightly from the norm, and this rarely happens. At the same time, a person’s tail, as an atavistic appendage, is clear evidence that the distant ancestors of homo sapiens undoubtedly had a tail. Why did they lose it? Look at the behavior of small monkeys - macaques and monkeys. The tail plays the role of a fifth hand for them. It is strong enough to support their light weight while freeing their limbs. With the growth of the monkey's body weight, the thickness of the tail muscle rapidly increased until it became an obstacle to existence in conditions where it was not necessary to hang on trees for a long time.
With the evolution of the ape-like ancestors of humans (movement on the ground, the transition to walking upright on the hind legs), the human tail, as a supporting and balancing organ, “was left without work”, and over time disappeared as unnecessary. Its function was successfully taken over by other organs. But its remnant is still present in the human skeleton - this is the coccyx.
Previously, it was believed that a person with a tail in the embryonic state reflects the process of evolution: from the coelenterate hydra, through the stage of a fish with gills, then through the stage of an animal with a tail and to, in fact, a person. Serious scientists were confident that this irrefutably proved Darwin's theory about the origin of man from the animal world. This is true, but the development of the embryo has nothing to do with it: from its very first day it is precisely a person and no one else.
The tail in a person in the embryonic stage is explained by the large number of vertebrae laid down in the womb (38 versus an adult) - so to speak, in advance, taking into account its slow development in comparison with other organs. It appears at the turn of the 1st and 2nd months of embryonic development. Then, during the 3rd month, a partial restructuring of the skeleton occurs with the reduction of “extra” vertebrae. The baby is born with a normal spine.
Cases of the birth of a child with atavism in the form of a tail-shaped appendage from soft tissues are extremely rare. But if this happens, it’s okay. It’s just that the first days of the baby’s life will be marked by a simple surgical operation. Considering that a newborn has a high ability to regenerate tissue, such an operation almost always takes place without complications.
Alas, the human tail can be inherited over several generations. One well-known scientific “collection” contains 116 facts of cases of the appearance of a tail in humans, among which 52 cases relate to males, and only 16 to females. Such an anomaly can be passed on from generation to generation in any race.
Today it is rare to see such anomalies because surgery to eliminate the tail after birth is very simple. Most adult tails can be found in countries with large poor populations, such as China or India.
“Tailed” examples in history
In 1910, traveler W. Sloan described his extraordinary discovery. In the depths of the desert of New Guinea, he met a tribe of natives, each of whom had a tail, or rather, a process at the back no longer than a dog's tail. In this regard, houses built on stilts had holes in the floor through which residents stuck their tails out while sleeping. They slept on the bare floor. Members of the Paris Anthropological Society were very skeptical about this discovery.
There have been descriptions of such tribes in the past, but none of these descriptions have been confirmed. Already in the 13th century, for example, Marco Polo wrote that every single one of the inhabitants of Sumatra had tails, like those of a dog.
In 1890, scientist Paul d'Enjoy caught a member of the Indo-Chinese Moi tribe who had a twenty-five-centimeter tail. The researcher assured that all representatives of the Moi tribe have tails, but from generation to generation the tails become shorter and shorter as a result of crossing with tailless neighboring tribes.
The skepticism of French anthropologists diminished a little in 1928, when a certain Dr. Nedeles found an eight-year-old boy in Saigon with a 15-centimeter tail. The photograph he took of this miracle of nature gained worldwide fame.
In 1930, Dr. Velazquez of San Pedro informed the public that one day while swimming in the sea near San Truilo in Honduras, he saw on the beach “a Caribbean woman who had thrown off her clothes, exposing a tail of at least 20 centimeters, from the appearance of which one can it was judged that it was shortened.”
In the 60s, in an ordinary Pskov village, a man with a tail was found. A naked man was found in the backyard of a private home. Upon closer inspection, it was revealed that it had no genitals, but did have a tail. Many, seeing him for the first time, mistook him for the devil. So his nickname remained - “damn.”
Later, residents said that in fact this is the son of a local woman who gave birth to a boy with physical disabilities. The woman hid her child from the outside world and kept him locked up. However, after her death, there was no one to look after the boy and sometimes he wandered the streets of the village at night. Then this strange man disappeared without a trace, his fate is unknown.
Indian Chandra
In the Alipurduar region of India, locals believe that 35-year-old Indian Chandra with a 14.5-inch tail is the Hindu monkey deity Hanuman. Many people gather near his home in West Bengal to receive blessings and touch his tail.
Because of his tail, Chandra could not get married for a long time, but he still found the woman who fell in love with him. Chandra's wife is three years older than him, but this does not bother him. Chandre is now planning to build his own temple so that all people can receive mass blessings.
Indian Arshid Ali Khan
A boy from India, whom locals perceive as the earthly incarnation of the monkey god Hanuman due to a genetic abnormality, planned to get rid of his peculiarity. Doctors recommended that Arshid Ali Khan get rid of the 17-centimeter tail growing from his lower back. At the same time, the teenager spoke about his innate feature as follows:
This tail was given to me by God. Many people come to me for help, and I pray for their wishes to come true. And they come true. And I’m quite calm about the tail itself.
A congenital feature prevents Ali Khan from leading a normal lifestyle for any teenager: he is forced to move in a wheelchair. Doctors cannot definitively diagnose him, as some are inclined to believe that the tail is the result of spina bifida, others that it is a congenital spina bifida. At the same time, doctors almost unanimously advise removing the appendage.
While Arshid Ali Khan himself has not yet made a decision, the boy’s family is skeptical about the doctors’ recommendations. The teenager is confident that even if doctors remove his tail, people will not stop asking him for help and mistaking him for the incarnation of Hanuman.
Arshid Ali Khan may compete with Amar Singh, who is 11 years younger and has grown a 30-centimeter ponytail from his hair on his lower back. He is also worshiped as a deity by the people of his native village in Uttar Pradesh.
Does a person have a tail?
Does a person have a tail or not?
It would seem that the answer to this question is obvious. Of course, No! But not everything is as simple as it seems at first! A survey of my classmates yielded the following results:
Of the 19 classmates surveyed, 15 believed that a person does not have a tail, and 4 answered that he does.
It's funny, but a person has a tail There is. Until a certain period. It is known that human embryos do have a noticeable tail during early development. However, as the body grows, all parts of the body surrounding the tail grow faster, making it eventually invisible. The tail stops growing in size, and becomes only one of the bones in the human body - the tailbone!
The coccyx is a continuation of the spine, which consists of 4-5 fused vertebrae and has a triangular shape
The tailbone itself is a tail.
Why does a person need a tailbone?
The tailbone is important in the body. The muscles and ligaments of the organs of the genitourinary system are attached to the coccyx, and part of the gluteal muscles is also attached to the coccyx. The coccyx serves to distribute the load on the pelvic organs and is used as a fulcrum when sitting. There are many nerve endings attached to the coccyx. Therefore, if coccyx injuries occur, they are characterized by very severe pain.
Origin. Version 1.
The tailbone is the former tail.
It's all about evolution. The coccyx is a rudiment of a person. That is part
body, which in the process of evolution seemed to have fallen out of use and
the body no longer needs it. This means that previously the tailbone was a tail, which served our ancestors to maintain balance and helped primitive people communicate with each other. Previously, the tail was much longer. Over time, upright posture and walking on the hind legs made the tail an unnecessary part. What we now see at the bottom of the spine is our former tail.
We have much more in common with the animal kingdom than we might imagine.
The tailbone is a potential tail.
Perhaps this organ began to develop, but at some stage its development stopped. Therefore, having a tailbone in humans does not prove that we had a tail in the past. But if it didn’t exist in the past, does that mean it is saved for use in the future? Perhaps in the future for all people the tail will grow back! If a person has some potential opportunity, then he can realize it. The tailbone is a potential tail and a person has the potential ability to swing the tail! Is it possible that a person will someday have a tail?
What kind of tail would we have?
I conducted a survey among my classmates - what kind of tail they would like to have. Here are his results: Tail:
like the FOX, 1 out of 19 respondents would like,
like the MONKEY – 5,
like LEMURE – 1,
like CROCODILE - 1 person.
How much would tails change people's lives?!
Sometimes we really miss the tail! How could he make our life easier... For example, you’re walking home from school, in one hand you have a bag with a change of shoes, and in the other you have skis and nothing to open the door... But if only there was a tail... how nice: you can open and close the door ! A mosquito has bitten you on the leg, and you are lying comfortably on your back and scratching your leg with its tail. And if it had a tassel of hair at the end, it would be absolutely wonderful. With a little practice, you can use your tail to learn to write, draw, and type on a computer. You can walk with friends with their tails clasped together, turn the pages of books with your tail, and in winter hide your face in fur.
If people had tails, it would be much more difficult for them to hide their emotions. A cat wags its tail when it is angry, and a dog when it is happy, but what emotions would we express with our tail? The tail would have to be looked after (some would take it to the hairdresser).
Parable about happiness
Walking down the street one day, an old cat saw a young kitten. He ran in a circle, trying to grab his tail. The old cat, who had seen a lot, watched with interest the baby, who was so carried away that he did not even notice his falls. “Tell me the secret, dear, what makes you chase your tail?” he asked the kitten. “Someone just told me that my tail is my happiness,” the kitten answered, “that’s why I want to catch it.” The old cat stretched out in such a smile that you can only see on an old cat, and said:
You know, when I was like you, I was told the same thing. How many days and nights did I spend chasing this tail - I didn’t drink or eat anything because I couldn’t think about anything other than this. Falling exhausted, I got up again and made every effort to finally catch my tail. And then came the moment of despair. I no longer needed anything, and I wandered wherever my eyes were looking. And do you know what happened? - What?. – the kitten asked with interest. - I saw that my tail was following me everywhere I went. Wherever I am, my happiness is always with me, I just need to remember this!
It seems that the dream of “having a tail” may soon come true! Smart Japanese have come up with Tailly - an electronic tail for a person that looks and behaves like a real one. The device responds to movement and heart rate - the faster your heart beats, the more the tail will wag.
Of course, you will tell us.
What are tails for? The tail is attached to cows to drive away flies and mosquitoes. For the fish to row, and for the boa to crawl. Crocodiles to fight, Monkeys to cling. Many animals need a tail. Cover your nose in winter. To confuse the trail is the fox's. For the peacock - for beauty. There are tails to wag
Threaten and show off... Tails are needed for everything, including beauty.
And what’s offensive is that EVERYONE has a tail, but people don’t... the injustice is obvious.
Tailed people (8 photos)
It's no secret that people are sometimes born with tails. Surgeons immediately remove this annoying anatomical excess.
Continue reading inside.
The debate has been going on for centuries. Moreover, the human embryo at certain stages of development is suspiciously similar to animal embryos: it also has a tail, which then disappears due to the so-called apoptosis (the programmed death of unnecessary cells). A lot of noise was made at one time by an article in which it was argued that for millions of years we have been storing the genes responsible for the tail in our ape-like ancestors and other mammals. But we don’t use these genes, and only in some people do they “wake up” for no reason at all, and then a person is born, for example, with a tail. A real tail should be like a continuation of the spine, contain bone or cartilage structures, nerves, muscles, etc. And most importantly, it can move depending on situations and emotions. The “true tail” of a newborn can be 2-12 cm in length.
Tail
The tail (in comparative anatomy) is a section of a segmented body located behind the anus and does not contain intestines. The presence of a tail in the sense of the accepted definition is characteristic only of chordates.
Fish tail
In most fish, the tail is not sharply separated from the body and is equipped with a fin - the main organ of movement.
Amphibian tail
In tailed amphibians, the tail serves as an auxiliary organ of movement (in water, the main one). In adult tailless amphibians, the caudal spine is reduced to one bone - the urostyle, but their larvae (tadpoles) have full-fledged tails that are used for movement.
Birds' tail
In modern and most fossil birds (with the exception of Archeopteryx), the “tail” is formed by so-called “tail” feathers, attached to the remnant of the original tail - the pygostyle. The "tail" of birds can perform various functions. In flight, it is a rudder; during mating, it is an ornament (it should be noted that the peacock’s “tail” is formed not by tail feathers, but by elongated uppertail feathers); it helps woodpeckers stay on the tree while searching for insects.
Tail in mammals
Mammalian tails are formed by 3-49 vertebrae. The tail can perform a grasping function, helping opossums, some anteaters and broad-nosed monkeys when climbing, it can serve as a support organ and rudder for galloping mammals - kangaroos and jerboas, or act as a parachute for squirrels and dormice. Whales and sirens have a short tail with a fin. In a number of mammals this part of the body is reduced.
Human tail
Human embryos at the early stages of development have a noticeable tail, but even during embryogenesis, the parts of the embryo surrounding it overtake it in growth, and it ceases to protrude above the surface of the body (although, as a rare developmental disorder, a short tail can develop in humans (see Atavism) The vertebrae of the caudal spine of humans, like those of other tailless primates, form the coccyx.
"Tails" in invertebrates
Sometimes in a figurative sense the word tail used to refer to the distinct posterior regions of the body in some non-chordate invertebrate groups. For example, they sometimes talk about the tail of scorpions (called opisthosoma). It should be noted that in these cases the "tail" contains the gut. In an even more general sense, tails are any tail-like outgrowths on any part of the body (for example, tails on the wings of butterflies - swallowtails or bluebirds).
Tails of various animals
The "tail" of a scorpion (actually the abdomen)
Why does a person need a tail: atavisms and rudiments
We are talking about atavisms and rudiments - these concepts often coexist with each other, sometimes cause confusion and have a different nature. The simplest and probably the most famous example, in which both concepts coexist, refers to the lower part of the human body, so to speak. The coccyx, the end of the spine in which several vertebrae are fused, is recognized as vestigial. This is a rudiment of a tail. As you know, many vertebrates have a tail, but for us, Homo sapiens, it seems to be of no use to us. However, for some reason nature has preserved for man the remnant of this once functional organ. Babies with a real tail are extremely rare, but are still born. Sometimes it is just a protrusion filled with fatty tissue, sometimes the tail contains transformed vertebrae, and its owner is even able to move his unexpected acquisition. In this case, we can talk about atavism, about the manifestation in the phenotype of an organ that was present in distant ancestors, but was absent in nearby ones.
So, rudiment is the norm, atavism is a deviation. Living beings with atavistic deviations sometimes look frightening and because of this, as well as because of the rarity of the phenomenon, they attract great interest from the general public. But evolutionary scientists are even more interested in atavisms, precisely because these “deformities” provide interesting clues about the history of life on Earth.
The eyes of moles that live underground, as well as of proteas, amphibians that live in water in dark caves, are rudiments. There is little benefit from them, which cannot be said about ostrich wings. They play the role of aerodynamic rudders when running and are used for defense. Females protect their chicks from the scorching rays of the sun with their wings.
The secret hidden in the egg
None of the modern birds have teeth. More precisely, this: there are birds, for example some types of geese, that have a number of small sharp projections in their beaks. But, as biologists say, these “teeth” are not homologous to real teeth, but are precisely outgrowths that help hold, for example, a slippery fish in the beak. Moreover, the ancestors of birds must have had teeth, because they are descendants of theropods, predatory dinosaurs. There are also known remains of fossil birds that had teeth. It is not clear for what reasons (perhaps due to a change in the type of food or in order to make the body lighter for flight) natural selection deprived birds of teeth, and one could assume that in the genome of modern birds the genes responsible for the formation of teeth are no longer present left. But this turned out to be untrue. Moreover, long before humanity learned anything about genes, at the beginning of the 19th century, the guess that modern birds could grow something like teeth was expressed by the French zoologist Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. He observed certain outgrowths on the beaks of parrot embryos. This discovery caused doubts and rumors and was eventually forgotten.
And almost ten years ago, in 2006, American biologist Matthew Harris from the University of Wisconsin noticed teeth-like outgrowths at the end of the beak of a chicken embryo. The embryo was affected by the deadly talpid 2 genetic mutation and had no chance of surviving to hatch from the egg. However, during this short life, the beak of the failed chicken developed two types of tissues from which teeth are formed. The genes of modern birds do not encode the building material for such tissues - this ability was lost by the ancestors of birds tens of millions of years ago. The embryonic teeth of the chicken embryo were not like the blunt-ended molars of mammals - they had a pointed conical shape, just like those of crocodiles, which, like dinosaurs and birds, are included in the group of archosaurs. By the way, they tried to grow molars in chickens and succeeded when, using genetic engineering, they introduced genes responsible for the development of teeth in mice into the chicken genome. But the teeth of the embryo that Harris studied appeared without any outside intervention. “Dental” tissues arose thanks to purely chicken genes. This means that these genes, which were not manifested in the phenotype, were dormant somewhere in the depths of the genome, and only a fatal mutation awakened them. To confirm his hypothesis, Harris conducted an experiment with already hatched chickens. He infected them with a virus artificially created by genetic engineering - the virus imitated the molecular signals that arise from the talpid 2 mutation. The experiment brought results: teeth appeared on the chickens’ beaks for a short time, which then disappeared without a trace into the beak tissue. Harris's work can be considered proof of the fact that atavistic traits are a consequence of disturbances in the development of the embryo that awaken long-silent genes, and most importantly, genes for long-lost traits can continue to be in the genome almost 100 million years after evolution has destroyed these traits. Why this happens is not known exactly. According to one hypothesis, “silent” genes may not be completely silent. Genes have the property of pleiotropy - this is the ability to simultaneously influence not one, but several phenotypic traits. In this case, one of the functions can be blocked by another gene, while others remain fully “working.”
Boas and pythons have so-called anal spurs - single claws that are a vestige of the hind legs. There are known cases of atavistic limbs appearing in snakes.
Strange vitality
It was possible to learn about toothy chickens and make a discovery almost by accident - all due to the fact that, as already mentioned, the mutation killed the embryo even before birth. But it is obvious that mutations or other changes that bring ancient genes to life may not be so fatal. How else can we explain the much more well-known cases of atavisms found in completely viable creatures? Such atavisms observed in humans as multi-digitation (polydactyly) on the arms and legs, and multiple nipples, which also occur in higher primates, are quite compatible with life. Polydactyly is characteristic of horses, which, during normal development, walk on one toe, the nail of which has turned into a hoof. But for the ancient ancestors of the horse, multi-digitation was the norm.
There are isolated cases where atavism led to a serious evolutionary turn in the life of organisms. Ticks of the family Crotonidae have atavistically returned to sexual reproduction, while their ancestors reproduced by parthenogenesis. Something similar happened in the hairy hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella), a herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family. Not everyone who is called tetrapoda in zoology is actually tetrapods. For example, snakes and cetaceans are descended from land-dwelling ancestors and are also included in the superclass tetrapoda. Snakes completely lost their limbs; in cetaceans, the forelimbs became fins, and the hind limbs practically disappeared. But the appearance of atavistic limbs has been noted in both snakes and cetaceans. There are cases when dolphins were found to have a pair of hind fins, and quadrupedalism seemed to be restored.
The vestigial pelvic bones of some cetaceans have long lost their original function, but their uselessness has been questioned. This vestige not only reminds us that whales evolved from quadrupeds, but also plays an important role in the reproduction process.
More bone - more offspring
However, something else reminds us of quadrupedality in whales, and here we move on to the area of rudiments. The fact is that some species of cetaceans have preserved rudiments of the pelvic bones. These bones have long been no longer connected to the spine, and therefore to the skeleton as a whole. But what made nature preserve information about them in the genetic code and pass it on to inheritance? This is the main mystery of the whole phenomenon called rudimentation. According to modern scientific ideas, rudiments cannot always be spoken of as superfluous or useless organs and structures. Most likely, one of the reasons for their preservation is precisely that evolution has found a new use for the rudiments, which was not previously typical. In 2014, American researchers from the University of South Carolina published an interesting work in the journal Evolution. Scientists examined the size of the pelvic bones of whales and came to the conclusion that these sizes correlate with the size of the penises, and the muscles of the penis are attached precisely to the vestigial pelvic bones. Thus, the size of the whale’s genital organ depended on the size of the bone, and a large penis predetermined success in reproduction.
