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Author Topic:   Why Did Homo Erectus Not Retain a Tail?
NosyNed
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Posts: 8996
From: Canada
Joined: 04-04-2003


Message 7 of 68 (734211)
07-26-2014 8:47 PM
Reply to: Message 6 by Dogmafood
07-26-2014 6:51 PM


Unlikely
I wonder if the loss of a tail pressured our descent from the trees or followed it.
That seems unlikely. As an extreme imagine a gibbon born without a tail (or a reduced one). This would be so detrimental that it would be strongly selected against.
Having been forced from the trees for other reasons (e.g., fewer trees) would allow tails to disappear as they are redundant and even detrimental as they require support resources.

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 Message 6 by Dogmafood, posted 07-26-2014 6:51 PM Dogmafood has seen this message but not replied

  
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