So humans split from the lineage that produced chimpanzees and bonobos—our closest living relatives—around 7–9 million years ago. Would we have been tail-less at that time? I’m assuming that losing tails was a gradual evolutionary process. My question is, are there any fossils with ‘half tails’? I would think that losing tails completely would have taken a long while.
We split from the Ape line after tails were lost. It was only 6-8 million years ago we split off. Tails were lost to our ape ancestors somewhere between 25 and 33 million years ago.
Apparently, the loss was immediate for any primate with the mutated TBXT gene. Mom might have a tail, but baby (and perhaps his offspring) would have no sign of one. I wonder if that is a genetic abnormality found in the occasional modern monkey.
The coccyx is a vestigial tail, correct?
Humans have a tail in early development in the womb. Occasionally somebody’s born with one; though if so there’s often something wrong with their spine.