Why do all animals have tails, except for humans, chimpanzees and gorillas?
It is not just humans, chimpanzees and gorillas that don’t have tails. Other apes such as orang-utans, bonobos and gibbons do not have them either. Basically, tails are designed to provide balance for animals, particularly those that might live in trees. A tail counterbalances the weight of the head at the front of the body. As humans became more upright and some apes started to use arms for more than just walking, the need for a tail for balancing became smaller, so over time and through evolution, it faded out. However, we do have the remains of a tail – the bottom three or four vertebrae of the human spine are fused together to form the tailbone (coccyx). This still has a use, anchoring muscles such as the one of your bottom, and it still really hurts if you fall on it.
