Tail is used to describe the rear end of an animal's body, especially when it forms a distinct, flexible appendage to the trunk. It is the part of the body that roughly corresponds to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals and birds. Its uses include locomotion (e.g. fish), balance (e.g. cats), grasping (e.g. monkeys), social signals (e.g. dogs) and defence (e.g. scorpions). Human embryos have a tail that measures about one-sixth of the size of the embryo itself. As the embryo develops into a fetus, the tail is absorbed by the growing body. Infrequently, a child is born with a "soft tail", which contains no vertebrae, but only blood vessels, muscles, and nerves. Modern procedures allow doctors to eliminate the tail at delivery. The longest human tail on record belonged to a twelve-year-old boy living in what was then French Indochina, which measured nine inches (229 mm) Trunk may be: Look up trunk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Sacrum, pelvic surface The sacrum (os sacrum) is a large, triangular bone at the base of the vertebral column and at the upper and back part of the pelvic cavity, where it is inserted like a wedge between the two hip bones. ... The coccyx is formed of four fused vertebrae. ... Categories: Biology stubs | Developmental biology ... Fetus at eight weeks Foetus redirects here. ...
Tails are useful, especially among mammals, for signaling to others of their kind. For example, deer will raise their tails when they hear something suspicious as a means of warning others.
Overall tail movement is governed by portions of the semitendinosus muscles, which extend over the horse's rump and attach to the vertebrae.
For instance, at the point where the tail attaches to the buttocks, the skin is five-eighths of an inch thick--as much as a half-inch thicker than it is anywhere else on the horse.
The importance of the tail as a locomotor device was greatly diminished.
A tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body, the term particularly referring to such a section which forms a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso.
Tails are mostly a feature of vertebrates, however some invertebrates have tail-like appendages, such as the tail of the scorpion, or the furcula of the springtail.
In most birds, tails consist of feathers of extended length, the function of which is to act as a rudder to balance and steer the bird in flight.
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