Maybe you don’t know, we all grew tails when we were in the womb. Specifically, at the 4th to 8th week of pregnancy, the human embryo will develop a tail in the coccyx as a genetic remnant left by our ancestors.
But then from 6 to 12 weeks of gestation, the white blood cells will destroy these tails (they eat the cells here and absorb the tail back) because evolution suddenly remembers that humans are not. the tail is needed.
However, if there is a reason that nature is absent-minded, the fetus will continue to develop through the 12th week and still keep its tail. The baby will then be born with the tail intact, even continuing to lengthen as they grow.
Recently, Brazilian doctors reported on such a case in the journal Surgery Case Reports. The newborn baby boy was born with a 12cm long tail remaining on his left buttock. Even at the tip of the tail there is a round mass of meat that makes it look like the tail of the comic character Doraemon.
“Human tails are classified as true or pseudotail. True tails represent the existence of residual embryonic tails… formed from fatty and connective tissue, blood vessels, muscles and nerve fibers.“, said doctors at Albert Sabin Children’s Hospital, Brazil.
Meanwhile, false tails are abnormal protrusions in the coccyx, which can be caused by malformations or spina bifida. False tails are therefore more common while the entire modern literature has only recorded 40 cases of babies born with real tails.
In some parts of the world, children born with a tail are often stigmatized and rejected. In contrast, in some places such as India, the tail is considered a blessing or gift from the gods.
Spina bifida can cause babies to grow tails, but this is just a fake tail.
Whereas the real tails are the unresorbed fetal tail, in this case a 7 week old embryo with a clearly visible tail.
Back to the Brazilian boy, the doctors said the boy’s tail was a real one. Because the ultrasound results showed that it did not have any nerve connections with the spine. The tail also has no bone or cartilage tissue. It is just an axis of fatty tissue, muscle and nerve connective tissue with large vascular branches.
The tail is 12 cm long with a spherical ball 4 cm in diameter at the end. This Doraemon tail-like ball was identified as a fibrous tissue containing collagen. Despite its huge size, in all 8 prenatal consultations including ultrasound examination of the mother, doctors did not detect this tail.
The mother said that during her pregnancy, she was completely healthy except for one urinary tract infection and had to take antibiotics. However, this mother has a bad habit of smoking, and during her pregnancy, she still smoked about 10 cigarettes a day.
The mother’s smoking was not directly linked to the fetus in her womb having a tail, but it did appear to partially affect and cause the boy to be born prematurely at 35 weeks’ gestation.
Despite this, apart from the strange tail and jaundice, the doctors said the boy was quite healthy. They assessed the boy’s tail and advised the mother to have it amputated.
That’s because growing up with such a tail is usually quite inconvenient. There is no indication that this tail could serve any function for the boy. In contrast, those who kept their tails as they grew older reported it was painful, inconvenient, and uncomfortable.
The tail makes it impossible for them to put on pants and sit like normal people, because pressing on it can be painful. Someone once kept their tail until the age of 17 but ended up having to cut it off because they couldn’t take it anymore.
Doctors at Albert Sabin Children’s Hospital said that after performing the tail removal procedure, the boy did not experience any complications and was completely healthy. They report this case in the medical journal to help other doctors get an overview of the rare cases of human with real tails, and warn about cases of false tails that should be screened and screened. detected early in pregnancy.
“Because of the common ectodermal origin between the skin and the central nervous system, it is essential that the pediatrician or pediatric surgeon investigate the presence of underlying spinal dysfunction in these patients. lesions are suspected, as they may be the only abnormalities visible and can be diagnosed early“, the team wrote.
Refer to Sciencedirect
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