Aleksandra Wudzinska

Feb 28, 2024 | nature.com | Bo Xia |Weimin Zhang |Xinru Zhang |Ran Brosh |Aleksandra Wudzinska |Yu Zhao | +2 more

AbstractThe loss of the tail is among the most notable anatomical changes to have occurred along the evolutionary lineage leading to humans and to the ‘anthropomorphous apes’1,2,3, with a proposed role in contributing to human bipedalism4,5,6. Yet, the genetic mechanism that facilitated tail-loss evolution in hominoids remains unknown. Here we present evidence that an individual insertion of an Alu element in the genome of the hominoid ancestor may have contributed to tail-loss evolution.