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WASHINGTON : Director James Cameron's "Avatar" movies are populated by a species of outsized blue beings resembling humans, except with tails. So why does our species lack a tail, considering that our evolutionary forerunners in the primate lineage had them?Scientists on Wednesday identified what might be
Our very ancient animal ancestors had tails. “We found a single mutation in a very important gene,” said Bo Xia, a geneticist at the Broad Institute and co-author of a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The researchers compared the genomes of six species of apes, including humans, and 15 species of monkeys with tails to pinpoint key differences between the groups.
Scientists have identified a gene mutation that may explain why we don't have tails.
Scientists have identified a gene mutation that may explain why we don't have tails.
When apes diverged from monkeys, our branch of the tree of life shed tails. Scientists have identified at least one key genetic mutation that led to the change.