Unlike most monkeys, apes — including humans — and their close extinct relatives don’t have tails. Their coccyx, or tailbone, is a vestige of the vertebrae that constitute a tail in other ...

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.

An alternatively spliced gene contributed to tail loss in early apes. The lack of a tail is one thing that separates apes — including humans — from other primates.

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 ...

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 ...

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.

Feb 29, 2024 12:15:00 We finally found out why monkeys have tails but humans don't. The ancestors of great apes, including . humans, diverged genetically from monkeys about 25 million years ago ...

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 ...

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.

Xia and colleagues theorized that the lack of tails in apes likely improved their locomotion. In fact, some scientists say that the absence of a tail simplified life on the ground for our ancient ...