The tail of a man is not a diabolical sign, but a reminder of distant ancestors

Cases when babies were born with a tail are known for a long time and have been repeatedly described. Hundreds of years ago, the tail of a European man caused superstitious fear, and the fate of unfortunate tailed babies, recognized as servants of the Devil, was sad. And at the same time, it was very lucky for such a child, if he was born in India. One of the honored deities in Hinduism - the monkey-like Hanuman - is described in the great epic "Ramayana." Tailed children were considered sacred envoys of Hanuman. Pilgrims lined up in kilometer queues to just touch the divine tail and receive a blessing ...

The tail of people is atavism, it is not as functional as that of small monkeys. For this, muscles and vertebrae must be present in it, but they do not exist. It is formed by the embryonic tissue in the event that the development of the human embryo slightly deviates from the norm, and this happens rarely. At the same time, the tail of a person as an atavistic process is a graphic proof that the tail of a homo sapiens had no doubt a tail.

Why did they lose it? Look at the behavior of small monkeys (macaques, monkeys). The tail plays the role of the fifth hand for them. He is strong enough to withstand their light weight, while freeing the limbs. With the growth of the body weight of the monkey, the thickness of the tail muscle increased rapidly, until it became an obstacle for existence in conditions where it was not necessary to hang for a long time on trees.

As the ape-like ancestors of humans evolved (moving along the ground, moving to a straight line on their hind legs), the tail of a man as a supporting and balancing organ "was left without work" and disappeared unnecessarily. His function was successfully taken over by other organs. But his remains are still present in the human skeleton - this is the coccyx.

Previously it was believed that a person with a tail in the embryonic state reflects the evolutionary process: from the coelenterate hydra through the stage of the fish with the gills through the stage of the animal with the tail to, in fact, the person. Serious scientists were sure that this irrefutably proves Darwin's theory of the origin of man from the animal world. This is true, but the development of the embryo has nothing to do with him: from the very first day he is just a man and no one else.

The tail of a person in the embryo stage is explained by the large number of vertebrae laid in the womb (38 vs. 33-34 in the adult) - so to speak, in advance, taking into account its slow development in comparison with other organs. He appears at the turn of the first and second months of embryonic development. Then, during the 3rd month, a partial reconstruction of the skeleton occurs with the reduction of the "extra" vertebrae. The baby is born with a normal spine. I repeat: the cases of the birth of a child with atavism in the form of a tail-shaped process of soft tissues are extremely rare. But if it happened, it's okay. Just the first days of the baby's life will be marked by a simple surgical operation. Given that the newborn has a high ability to regenerate tissues, this operation almost always goes without complications.