You insisted that the prehensile tail was soooo last eon.
I tried to argue you out of it, but you, and all the anti-chimp bigots on the committee choose to override my reasonable concerns for our soon-to-be push button jockey descendants. sigh
I guess I can live with it. Since I have no choice.
But, if you’re going to get rid of the fucking tail, why the Hell have you kept the coccyx? I mean, really. This makes the appendix look like a marvel of bio-engineering. If it were just a tad more flexible, instead of rigid, it could move with sudden shocks. If it were gone completely, it would be no problem at all.
As it is, I’m facing another month of pain thanks to you and a 20[sup]o[/sup] slope on an icy driveway two weeks ago.
I’m sure the damned thing is busted, and there’s diddly I can do about it. If I had a tail, this would be worthwhile - as it is if I have to suffer from the vulnerability of a bone that is easy to break from falling on one’s ass why not get some of the benefits from that vulnerability, too.
Twits.
-Loki (Who’s wishing that better drugs might be available 'til the damned thing heals. Or at least an annular pillow.)
As an aside challenge, is there any other body part that has such a silly name as the coccyx? (Man, what a Scrabble[sup]TM[/sup] word.)
Hmm… the problem I have with eyeballs on stalks is that how would I wear my glasses, then? I’ve already admitted I’m too squeemish for contacts. And that would be the only choice.
I feel your pain. Literally. Well, not anymore, but earlier this winter, I slipped on my icy front steps, fell down, and bruised (not broke, thank God) my tailbone. Man, did that hurt. And yeah, it was about a month before I could sit down without pain, especially on a hard surface like the floor. Ouchie.
When I was little I remember sitting on the top of the middle seat in our minivan and dropping down into the normal part of the seat. One time I did this and landed right on the seatbelt buckle. Most of the pain has been blocked from my memory, but “throes of agony” sounds about right. I think the one thing that saved me from doing real damage (like cracked or broken something) was the fact that I was little, so I didn’t weigh much.
What about those kids born every year with tails? Are you going tell them they aren’t apes? (Of course I’d love to see you explaining to some large, and undereducated father that he’s an ape, according to some taxonomic schemes. Not a plan that involves a long and happy, pain-free career, I’d think. :D)
Besides, I’m no ape. Alas. I’m a hominid. (Like I said, only according to some taxonomic schemes.)
Umm… seriously, it’s a rather well-known birth ‘defect’. No real harm to it - and usually amputated at birth. (Hey the poor sucker is already pissed about leaving the womb, what’s a little more pain?)
Besides, these tails are not usualy prehensile, as I understand it. sigh
If the word “ape” has any taxonomic meaning, then you are an ape. Any meaningfull group that includes both chimpanzees and gorillas (let alone orangutans) has to also include humans. A classification scheme that includes humans in Hominidae and chimps, gorillas and orangutans in Pongidae is phylogentically incoherent, since chimps are more closely related to humans than they are to either gorillas or orangutans.
And humans almost certainly never had an ancestor with a prehensile tail. Only new world monkeys have prehensile tails, and almost certainly evolved the trait after they split with old world monkeys and apes.
We lemurs do indeed have tails, but no species of lemur has a prehensile tail.
And presumably the genus Homo was described before the genus Pongo, so the family name is Hominidae, i.e., chimps, gorillas and orangutans are better described as hominids. (Though I don’t really mind being called an ape).
Well, think about it. The squirmy part of contacts is learning how to stick your finger in your eye to install the lens. But if your eyeballs are on prehensile stalks, this is no longer necessary; you can place the lens on any flat surface, and then lower your eyeball onto it. Problem solved.
Seems to me the biggest problem with eyeballs on stalks is worrying about some fratboy prankster tying them in a knot while you’re sleeping.
