# Possible UL? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 10, 1999, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182 "1999-09-10T16:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/1 "1999-09-10T16:36:00Z")
I have a co-worker who said that her mother, who had worked in the medical profession, had made the comment to her on numerous times that “you’d be surprised how many babies are born with tails that are simply snipped off.” I got the idea that she was not talking about prehensile tails, but some vestigial tail. This might be a UL, but I have not heard it before. Also, my friend did not say that her mother had actually ever seen one. Has anyone else ever heard of something like this? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/2 "1999-09-10T16:54:00Z")
Um, it’s bull. Unless she wants to propose that every culture in the world has automatically “snipped off” the tails of its infants. Unless she can show that there is any significant number of people missing a coccyx or with a scar in the appropriate place. Unless she can present a reason why delivery room personel would automatically subject a newborn to such a procedure. Unless she can show the waivers available from the hospital’s legal department to allow parents to authorize an automatic tail-ectomy immediatly after birth. And a few hundred other objections that don’t come to mind as quickly. ## Oh, how about showing vestigial tails on chimps and bonobos? They are our closest relatives and I do not believe there is a congenital condition that humans experience that is not shared by the two chimps. Dr. Fidelius, Charlatan Associate Curator Anomalous Paleontology, Miskatonic University Homo vult decipi; decipiatur ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/3 "1999-09-10T16:55:00Z")
I recall seeing a picture of a baby with a vestigial tail in my high school biology book, right next to a photo of a woman with two --or was it three-- pairs of breasts. Now let’s get into some hardcore irresponsible speculation: Al Franken contends that Rush Limbaugh was declared 4H during the Vietnam War because the has an exceedingly gross condition where the skin just above his anus is not closed over the coccyx. Could this condition be a result of tail surgery? And if so, was that tail forked? ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/4 "1999-09-11T05:00:00Z")
And here’s a helpful link: [http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9692/born\_with\_tails.html](http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/9692/born_with_tails.html) This site links to a medical case search engine that will purportedly show numerous examples. I’m downloading the film of the “man revealing his tail” right now. Schweet. ---
**Author:** ![Strainger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strainger/32/244_2.png) [@Strainger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strainger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/5 "1999-09-11T05:05:00Z")
This should explain it. From [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9806144&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/htbin-post/Entrez/query?uid=9806144&form=6&db=m&Dopt=b) : > [@](#): > > The human tail is a congenital anomaly with a protruding lesion from the lumbosacrococcygeal region ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/6 "1999-09-11T05:16:00Z")
Yes, on occasion people are born with a tail. So sue me if I inferred from > [@](#): > > “you’d be surprised how many babies are born with tails that are simply snipped off.” that Mjollnir’s cow-orker’s mother was implying that there was a _significant number_ of such cases. pfffft. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/7 "1999-09-10T18:06:00Z")
Well, Sofa? What did you think of the “man shows tail” video? It grossed me out… 🙂 * * * An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity. ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/8 "1999-09-10T23:40:00Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_077.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_077.html) * * * Brian O’Neill CMC International Records [rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html](http://rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html) ICQ 35294890 AIM Scrabble1 Yahoo Messenger Brian\_ONeill ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 1999, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/9 "1999-09-10T23:52:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Rush Limbaugh was declared 4H during the Vietnam War You mean 4_F_. There are plenty of things Rush is, but H ain’t four of them. ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/10 "1999-09-11T02:17:00Z")
Hey, Nick - I dunno about that… Heartless Heavy Hollow Hopeless * * * Brian O’Neill CMC International Records [rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html](http://rockuniverse.com/cmc/cmc.html) ICQ 35294890 AIM Scrabble1 Yahoo Messenger Brian\_ONeill ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/11 "1999-09-11T06:24:00Z")
I want to know from DrFidelius how one “ork[s]” “cow[s]”. 😉 Ray (-- and the mother of all “cow-orker[s]”?) ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/12 "1999-09-11T06:40:00Z")
From the the Web page with the animated GIF of a human tail: > [@](#): > > The owners could also wag their tails a little. Whenever the party gets a little dull? Beats ears for that, I guess. Ray (my tale is told) ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 1999, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/13 "1999-09-11T13:06:00Z")
Add hyperbolic to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/14 "1999-09-13T10:04:00Z")
Wasn’t there an episode of the X-Files that dealt with people with tails, sounds like a good source for an UL? ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/15 "1999-09-13T11:15:00Z")
There was an episode which began with a baby being born with a tail. It turned out the father of the baby (and several others) was another ‘shape changer’ who at one point even assumed Mulder’s i.d. and made a pass at Scully. ---
**Author:** ![Poto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ab992/32.png) [@Poto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poto)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/16 "1999-09-13T11:24:00Z")
Satan:You don’t have a tail?How about hooves? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 1999, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possible-ul/3182/17 "1999-09-13T16:46:00Z")
So _that’s_ what they meant by “getting a piece of…” And they said this board wasn’t educational! 😉