According to a recent report from Washington, scientists have determined that our distant animal predecessors possessed tails, but humans no longer do.

Approximately 20-25 million years ago, apes separated from monkeys and our branch of the evolutionary tree lost its tail. Since Darwin’s era, researchers have been curious about why and how this change occurred.

Scientists have now pinpointed one of the primary genetic adjustments that contributed to this transformation.

According to Bo Xia, a geneticist from the Broad Institute and co-author of a study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, a crucial gene has a single mutation.

The scientists analyzed the genetic makeup of six types of non-human primates, including humans, and 15 species of tailed monkeys in order to identify crucial discrepancies between the two groups. Following their discovery of a noteworthy mutation, they experimented by using the CRISPR gene-editing technique to alter the same section of DNA in mouse embryos. The resulting mice were then born without tails.

Warning from Xia that losing tails may be influenced by additional genetic mutations.

Is the absence of tails a contributing factor to the survival of ape ancestors and humans, or was it simply a random mutation that prospered due to other factors?

“According to Miriam Konkel, an evolutionary geneticist at Clemson University who was not part of the research team, it is possible that this could be a result of chance, but it could also have provided a significant evolutionary benefit.”

There are various intriguing explanations for why not having a tail may have been beneficial, including some that connect the absence of a tail to the development of bipedalism in humans.

According to Rick Potts, a director at the Smithsonian Institution’s Human Origins Project who was not involved in the study, not having a tail could have been the initial stage for certain apes to transition to a more upright body posture, even before they migrated from trees.

Some apes do not reside on the ground in contemporary times. Orangutans and gibbons, which do not have tails, are examples of tree-dwelling apes. However, Potts mentions that they have distinct movements compared to monkeys. While monkeys usually move along the tops of branches, utilizing their tails for stability, these apes hang beneath the branches and swing between them while predominantly remaining upright.

According to Itai Yanai, a biologist from New York University and a co-author of the study, the loss of our tails was a significant change. However, to definitively understand the cause, we would need to create a time machine.

___

The Science and Educational Media Group of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute provides support to the Associated Press Health and Science Department. The AP is fully accountable for all material published.

Source: wral.com