For many vertebrates, a tail has helped with functions like locomotion - think of propulsion by fish and whales - and defense - as with dinosaurs that wielded tails with clubs or spikes.

Humans can't seem to keep a tail, suggests new research that finds our early ancestors lost tails not just once, but twice. The findings, published in the journal Current Biology, not only help ...

The mutation that led to tail loss, according to the researchers, occurred roughly 25 million years ago, when the first apes evolved from monkey ancestors ...

It is an interesting thought experiment to ponder whether humans could have evolved with tails. The Na'vi people of "Avatar," alas, are science fiction.

The absence of a tail may have better balanced the body for orthograde — upright — locomotion and eventually bipedalism, said one scientist. Subscribe Digital Print ...