When apes diverged from monkeys, our branch of the tree of life shed tails. Scientists have identified at least one key genetic mutation that led to the change. Our ancient animal ancestors had tails.

However, humans and our closest primate relatives — the great apes — said farewell to tails about 25 million years ago, when the group split from Old World monkeys.

Looking at DNA samples of people, apes without tails, and monkeys, the scientists discovered that the latter is missing a piece of genetic code shared by the former two.

A genetic parasite may have robbed humans and other apes of their tails. Around 25 million years ago, this parasite, a small stretch of repetitive DNA called an Alu element, ended up in a gene ...

The researchers compared the DNA of two groups of primates: monkeys, which have tails, and hominoids - humans and apes - which do not. They found a mutation in a gene called TBXT that was present ...

However, humans and our closest primate relatives — the great apes — said farewell to tails about 25 million years ago, when the group split from Old World monkeys.

Our very ancient animal ancestors had tails. Why don’t we? Somewhere around 20 million or 25 million years ago, when apes diverged from monkeys, our branch of the tree of life shed its tail. From ...

However, humans and our closest primate relatives — the great apes — said farewell to tails about 25 million years ago, when the group split from Old World monkeys.

A mutation in a gene called TBXT may be behind the loss of great apes' tails, according to a new study. Jabid Ishtiaque via Flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. Our primate ancestors used their tails for ...

Humans’ closest primate relatives lost their tails long ago, but exactly how has remained a mystery. A breakthrough in genetic research may finally offer answers. Why don’t humans have tails?