Are humans the only animals that don't have tails?

Answer 1

Chimps man closest living relation don't have tails either, and im pretty sure there is a lot more.

Answer 2

As so many have pointed out, we did have tails and so did some other mammals, but evolution made those changes. Now, of all the other animals who still possess their tails, who would miss it the most? Who would miss it the least? Maybe a pig wouldn't miss it much, but a dog really would!
Tails are funny things; a lizard can save itself by losing its tail and then another one grows back again. Maybe a lizard would miss it the most, then.
I kind of miss mine! It would be so cool to have an extra limb ... a real helping hand!
Anyway, you have a lot of great answers.
Just wanted to add a comment to usman isaac's excellent answer; I don't agree that humans are set apart from other animals because they can make works of art. I had a pet Rosella parrot who made an amazing engraving around the entrance hole to her nest box. It was totally symmetrical and really beautiful! After she died, I kept her work of art, not only in her memory, but because it is so wonderful. Then there is the Bower Bird. And look at spider webs, ant hills, wasps nests etc. Animals do make art, whether they have a tail or not.

Answer 3

Tails are useful to some animals eg some monkeys use them when climbing trees but other animals have no further use for them so eventually evolve so that the tail disappears. This explains why, RARELY some humans are born with tails but most are not. Gorillas and chimps no longer have a use for tails either so have lost theirs too

Answer 4

For the longest while it was thought that we humans were the only animal possessed of — how was it put? — possessed of an immortal soul. Of course, those of us who have lived with Irish wolfhounds for most of our lives know that this is preposterous nonsense. I am reminded of what I hope is the true story told of a late-19th century French Catholic novelist, who on his deathbed is reputed to have said, "If I cannot be with my cats in heaven, I will not go."

There is one thing, however, that does distinguish us from all the other animals, and it is this: We are the only animal that makes art. We are the only animal that has invented metaphor to define ourselves to ourselves.

Now, I know about these experiments being done with chimpanzees and gorillas, persuading them to communicate with us by sign language. Interestingly, it is only the female chimpanzees and gorillas that are interested in this communication, the males being content to shriek in ways we have not translated. And some of these females have been taught a rather extensive sign language, a vocabulary of perhaps 400 words — certainly larger than a number of New York cab drivers I've run across.

As far as I know, none of these female chimpanzees or gorillas has used the sign language skills to write a play. I'm sure, however, that as soon as one does, given the state of our commercial theater, it will be produced on Broadway; and, given the state of much of our criticism, it will run for three years.

But until — if — this occurs, I hold that we are the only animal that makes art, and I'm convinced that this is part of the evolutionary process. We all used to have a tail, you know. Not a collective one, you understand, but we still have a jut of bone at the base of our spine called the coccyx, and that is the vestigial remnant of our tails. You still have this jut of bone; don't look now, but take it as we must so much on faith. To simplify just a little bit, what happened is this: Somewhere along the line in the evolutionary process, our tails fell off and we grew art.

We have extraordinarily creative people in this country, but generally speaking they are not the most popular in the mind of the general public. Oh, John Updike and Philip Roth write a bestseller every now and again, and there's nothing to be done about it, but broadly speaking, the people we rightly put up on pedestals have less influence on the mind and morality of this country than their intellectual and creative inferiors. We know it is commerce that determines this, which equates popularity with excellence. But I warn you, if the finest minds and talents cease to matter in the larger cultural picture, we are in serious trouble, and our culture is in serious decline.

Our educational system is a de facto two-tier disgrace, with so many of our students getting, at best, a halfway decent education. In schools the arts are taught, if at all, as an adjunct, and getting a high-paying job is considered more valuable than being broadly educated. Few Americans are educated in the ways government works — or does not work — and our passivity, our downright apathy, in the face of the headlong retreat from democracy in this country makes us wonder if perhaps the late Max Lerner was not right: We are a civilization in decline without ever having reached its zenith.

They tell us that in a democracy, we can have anything we want. True. But it is also true that in a democracy, we get exactly what we deserve. We'd better figure out what we deserve.

Answer 5

Some humans do have tails...but for the most part we don't. And to answer your question...no. Lots and lots of animals do not have tails. If you consider the actual definition of an animal - a multicellular, holozoic, heterotroph...then insects, arachnids, and many other organisms that we humans do not really consider animals actually are, and a great number of those do not have tails.

Answer 6

Theres plenty of animals without tails, but isn't it true that some people have been born with a kind of tail attached to the base of their spine?

Answer 7

Some people are born with tails that the doctors cut off.

Answer 8

Yes, they are. Amazing, huh?

That explains why most of humans want to own anything that seems like a tail.
.

Answer 9

we do have tails, only that they're too short to see. most animals who dont have tails used to have one

Answer 10

We do have a tail. It's called the coccyx it's not very big, and doesn't protrude past the skin. feel for it next time you're in the shower. It's the end of your spine, in your butt-crack.

Seriously.