Why do animals have tails?

Question

I dont understand why animals have tails and humans dont.

Answer 1

For balance reasons, in relation to walking on 4 paws. Observe a cat's tail when it is jumping, running, etc, they use their tails a lot. Some animals have tails for display purposes, like birds - they also use them to steer.
Others use their tails for grasping (like monkeys and lemurs), steering (like fish and whales) or pest control (cows and horses).

Humans used to have tails (we still have tailbones) and so did the apes (apes like chimps can be bipedal and do not have tails - as opposed to monkeys). But now we walk on 2 feet and it is not convenient for us to have tails.

Answer 2

Animal have tails for a number of different reason:

1. Balance. Cats, squirrels, monkeys, and other animals use their tails to balance when climbing or on narrow straights.

2. Bug repellent. Livestocks such as cows and horses use their tails to swat biting bugs.

3. Flight. Bird's tails often act as airplane tails do in the assistance of flight control

4. Swimming. Many aquatic animals use their tails to push them through the water.

5. Grabbing. Some animals such as monkey can use their tails as a fifth hand or arm.

6. Mating. Some animals like the peacock use their tails to attract mates.

Humans do have tails during embryonic development but usually not when they are born. You don't have tails because you either believe we evolved without them or God made us that way. Some humans are born with slight tails though but urgeons can remove these safely.

Answer 3

Tails perform various different functions in animals, they are used by fish and other marine life for locomotion, while some land animals use them for balance (e.g. cats) or even for grasping (e.g. monkeys).

Tails can also be useful as for social signals, as used by deer to warn of possible danger, or by domestic dogs to indicate emotions. Different evolutionary pressures have led to armoured tails, some containing venom, as in the case of scorpions.

In some species of lizard, the tail is able to be permanently detached ("cast") from the body if necessary, with the intent of escaping a grip or distracting a predator long enough to allow the lizard to escape. Usually their tails will grow back over time, though generally darker in colour than the original.

In most birds, tails consist of feathers of extended length, the function of which is to act as a rudder to balance and steer the bird in flight, also to provide balance when perched

Human embryos have a tail that measures about one-sixth of the size of the embryo itself. As the embryo develops into a fetus, the tail is absorbed by the growing body. The developmental tail is thus a human vestigial structure. Infrequently, a child is born with a "soft tail", which contains no vertebrae, but only blood vessels, muscles, and nerves; although there have been a very few documented cases of tails containing cartilage or up to five vertebrae. Modern procedures allow doctors to eliminate the tail at delivery. The longest human tail on record belonged to a twelve-year-old boy living in what was then French Indochina, which measured nine inches (229 mm).[1]

Humans have a tail bone (the coccyx) attached to the pelvis, in the same place which other mammals have tails. The tail bone is formed of fused vertebrae, usually four, at the bottom of the vertebral column. It doesn't protrude externally, but retains an anatomical purpose: providing an attatchment for muscles like the gluteus maximus.

Answer 4

Humans do -- ours our just very short and don't extend outside our bodies, but we DO have them. :)

*Why* animals have tails can't really be answered -- animals have tails because they evolved that way. Obviously tails must have had some evolutionary advantage, and I can think of some uses that fit that defintion, but that doesn't mean they're reasons why!
Four-legged animals use their tails for balance, to swat flies when they're on all fours, and as objects of attraction for mates. Primates (monkeys, for example) use tails to hang onto tree branches and keep their hands free for eating, for balance as well, and other uses. You'll notice that the more time a primate spends on the ground, the shorter their tails are -- chimpanzees and the great apes have much shorter tails than tree-dwelling monkeys. And humans, who left the trees for life on the plains a long time ago, have the shortest tails of all primates :) Once we got down out of the trees, our tails ceased to be an evolutionary advantage, so there was no evolutionary pressure for them to remain.

Answer 5

Most of the animals that have tails have 4 legs, or are fish. The tail is for balance, so that the animal doesn't trip as often. Cats' tails are very sensitive and they can control them extremely well, and that's why cats are light on their feet. Fish obviously use their tails to propel themselves through the water. Humans don't need tails because we stand up tall instead of long and low, but we don't have very good balance.

Answer 6

Tails are a biological left-over of the prehensile tail (a tail to grab tree branches with) from all the tree-living creatures that evolved from there. Primates, you will note, still use their prehensile tails. The also serve as a balance mechanism in some animals, like cats and dogs, for jumping and walking along the tops of fences. Humans actually still have the traces of a tail at the end of their spines (coccyx, I think it's called).

Answer 7

Some animals don't have tails, or they have stubs. It just has to do with the species and breed. Look at where your tail would be if you had one. You can feel the end of your spine and a little indent. It's just part of human species. That IS our tail.

Answer 8

Tails on animals have various uses in from function to communication.

Horses use their tails to keep stinging insects away by whipping their tails around.

Kangaroos use their tails for balance and defense.

Monkeys have prehensiled tails that they use for anchoring, defense, and hunting.

Some animals use their tails in displays of courtship as a way to lure a female for a little animal nookie.

Answer 9

For some it is vestigial (still there, but useless). Humans don't have long visible tails mostly because it's not an attractive feature. Our ancestors own personal preference for a tail-less mate, over thousands of years, gradually rid tails from (most) people of today. Animals have tails because they may use it (to swim, or for balance, or even for mating).

Answer 10

That is the way God made them.

First of all lets talk a little bit. We, men, women,
children have our bodies made up of meat and bones.
The bones are hard and are somehow covered by meat.
The bones all together form our skeleton and help
us in many ways: to move, to walk, to sit, to stand
and so on. If you rub your hand all the way from
the neck of a person down to the botton you can
feel a kind of straight collection of bones, they form
what is called spinal column. In men and women the
spinal column stops there, at the bottom. In other
animals it goes further and is called tail.


Many animals have tails with different and
very important uses.
For example, in monkeys they help them to move
from tree to tree and to fix in a tree branch.
In other animals, like cats and dogs, the tails
serve to communicate and show emotions, see how
your dog tail moves when it is happy...And when a cat
is angry, its tail waves back and forth very fast...
Also in cats and other animals the tails serve for
keeping their equilibrium. Another use mostly in big
animals is to help them to get rid of insects, waving
them away.
But the more important tail use in animals
is to help their body to be kept warm.
Animals that live in waters also have tails and they
permit them to move very fast to the direction
they choose.


See in nature everything has a reason and a
way to be.

Evolution and adaptation have given animals many different body shapes and
styles. Many mammals use tails for display; some, like squirrels, use them
to help keep their balance; bats and birds use their tails to fly - the uses
are wonderfully different. We really can't answer why tails evolved in the
first place, but once they began to develop animals have adapted to use them
in marvelous ways.