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There is no "why" -- it happened and was not selected against; it may have been adaptive and that is a kind of why, I guess. I think it would be better to be c
by ngvrnd 2y ago
There is no "why" -- it happened and was not selected against; it may have been adaptive and that is a kind of why, I guess. I think it would be better to be clear about this in science communication.
- Smaug123 2y agoThe article itself is very clear about the sense of the word "why" intended here.
- JBiserkov 2y agoYes: > But while the new study explains the “how” of tail loss in humans and great apes, the “why” of it is still an open question. Title is still clickbait.
- Hackbraten 2y agoThe article itself states that this may be the case, or that it might have had some evolutionary advantage that we're just not aware of.
- o-o- 2y agoThere has to be more to it. If it’s not selected against, it wouldn’t spread at the cost of the tail gene. Somehow, somewhere along the genome line, non-tailers overtook tailers.
- BoiledCabbage 2y ago> There is no "why" Of course there is a why. It happend and not only was it not selected against, presence of a tail was selected against. Meaning it was, or came along with a beneficial adaptation. That benefit is why it took over our gene pool and why we don't have tails now.