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Look at an animal and odds are you'll see a tail. But why do animals have tails? Tails
are actually pretty complicated, and their purposes are diverse, varying from animal
to animal. However the most common use of a tail is to communicate feelings. A dog or
cat will have its tail held high when alert but held down low when scared or sad. When
we venture outside of this behavioral function though, the usage gets a lot more diverse.
Primates and some other mammals have two different kinds of tails, prehensile tails and non-prehensile
tails. Prehensile tails act as an extra hand, and they aid in grabbing other items and hanging
on to trees. On the other hand, non-prehensile tails help balance the animal while swinging,
climbing, and jumping. Birds use their tails to steer themselves, fish and other sea animals
use their tails as a method of propulsion, grazing animals using theirs to swat biting
insects, alligators store fat in theirs, and foxes use their large, bushy tails as a blanket
to warm them up. But wait a second. Humans are technically animals, right? So where's
our tail? Humans, like all other mammals, do have a tail—in the first four weeks of
human embryogenesis that is. Human embryogenesis is basically the beginning stage of development
in a human, occurring eight weeks before the fetus is created. But evidently we don't have
tails. So where does our tail go? Our tails are quickly absorbed into our growing body,
leaving a coccyx, also known as a tail bone, behind. What seems like a pointless part of
our vertebrae, however, is actually essential in the connection of muscles, tendons, and
ligaments, and it provides us support while sitting. So even though we humans don't have
a tail to keep us warm or swat away biting insects, other animals do have tails and they
rely on them every day to keep them alive. Thanks for watching today's video. If you
enjoyed, be sure to subscribe, like, and comment. If you would like to see some other content
by Science Saturdays, be sure to click on the pictures below. In next week's video we
will be answering the question "Does light weigh anything?" Science Saturdays-bringing
free education to the modern world.