The researchers identified a genetic change shared by humans and other apes that might have contributed to their ancestors’ tail loss, some 25 million years ago. Mice carrying similar ...

A genetic parasite may have robbed humans and other apes of their tails. “It was like lightning struck once,” says Jef Boeke, a geneticist at New York University Langone Health, and ape ...

Tails are useful for balance, propulsion, communication and defense against biting insects. However, humans and our closest primate relatives — the great apes — said farewell to tails about 25 ...

Read the paper: On the genetic basis of tail-loss evolution in humans and apes Most monkeys have a tail, and tails were present at the origin of the primate lineage more than 65 million years ago 4.

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 ...

WASHINGTON — 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 ...

humans, diverged genetically from monkeys about 25 million years ago and lost the tails that other monkeys have. Until now, it was unknown what kind of genetic factor caused great apes to lose ...

Balancing their bodies as they bolt through the branches, the tail is an advantageous adaptation for monkeys. But why wasn’t the tail beneficial for our ancient ancestors, the apes? Somewhere along ...

New research highlights may explain why humans lost their tails millions of years ago. De Agostini via Getty Images Looking at DNA samples of people, apes without tails, and monkeys, the ...