The Tailbone (if you could call it that)?

Question

I recently heard someone say that the tailbone is proof that we had tails. I've done a bit of research on the matter and found that the tailbone actually is not a remnant of a tail at all but just the end of the spine. In fact, it is typically one vertabrae longer than that of the neanderthal which if we were digressing from a tail wouldn't make any sense.
Also with evidence to babies being born with a tail, those tails share no similarity with tails of animals nowadays with the biggest emphasis on bones within the tail.
Also the tailbone is actually not useless at all but assists in childbirth and defecation and helps to support the muscles around the pelvis.
I am curious as to the ideas out there because I appreciate scientific answers whilst being a Christian myself. Please read the website http://www.angelfire.com/mi/dinosaurs/tailbone.html first because though it might be complicated, it is very enlightening.

Answer 1

The tailbone alone is a KIND of proof of tails, but not really very good proof. It is a kind of proof because creatures with tails have similar structures. It's not very good proof because many structures in nature which are very similar seem to be used for very different things and come from very different sources.

Embryonic studies, however, are more conclusive than the website you listed lets on. If it were just a hyper-developed spine than that would be one thing... but at the stage in which an embryo has a 'tail', it actually has as many as 12 MORE vertebrae than an adult! (link 1)

No amount of development in humans produces 12 extra vertebrae... it would be like saying there was some exercise you could do that would make you twelve feet tall. This structure can only have come from someplace else. And since all those vertebrae and other things are completely reabsorbed, the only accurate word to apply to them (in the embryo, if nowhere else) is vestigal.

Even this, of course, isn't iron-clad proof that the human species ever had tails. All it absolutely proves is that embryoes do some odd things. So the question really is this: if the human species never had tails, why do embryoes develop exactly as if they did? If you've got an answer to that one, I'd like to hear it!

Answer 2

I wish I had a tail.