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Q&A

Hominids Re-Evolving Tails?

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Hominids lost any tails we had before we evolved away from the rest of the great apes, which is related to why you should never call an ape a monkey. What could lead to a hominid species re-evolving a tail?

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This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/103161. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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Mutation

Starting from our current evolutionary state the first step is a sudden mutation to have some form of tail again. This one can be very small and doesn't need to have any real effect.

Sexual selection

Afterwards people start to like it. It's unusual and therefore normally an evolutionary disadvantage, but if that individual manages to lead a good life apparently the rest of his genes is very good. Look at peacocks for example.

Tails are starting to be normal

Quite some time afterwards everyone has a tail and people start preferring longer tails that can actually do something, because just having a tail is not good enough anymore.

Conclusion

Suddenly hominids have a prehensile tail.

(Note: some steps may be faster if you start genetically engineering humans to exhibit this trait and selecting them for procreation.)

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