Re: Why all apes including humans do not have tails

On 05/04/2024 22:07, DB Cates wrote:

 

Not to mention the article suggests tail loss could be associated with neural tube defects, which would definitely make drift much less likely.
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Could you be more explicit here?

I think that the idea is that a mutation associated with neural tube defects is under strong enough negative selection that it would be fixed by drift, and therefore there must be a countervailing selective advantage to the mutation (and also selection for compensatory mutations preventing the neural tube defects).
On the other had, the mutation has been shown to be associated with neural tube defects in one genetic background. Assuming that the association carries over to other genetic backgrounds is a leap.
--
alias Ernest Major