Why don’t humans have tails? Scientists find answers in an unlikely place

Humans have many wonderful features, but we lack something common to most animals with backbones: a tail. Exactly why that is has been a mystery.

Tails are useful for balance, propulsion, communication and defense against biting insects. Humans and our closest primate relatives - the great apes - said goodbye to tails about 25 million years ago, when the group split from the Old World monkeys. The loss has long been associated with our transition to bipedalism, but little was ...