MadSci Network: Anatomy |
No, it is not possible to have a tail surgically implanted and actually work. For the tail to actually work, there has to be some way of controlling it. For example, if you had an arm reattached, the spinal cord already has nerve cells to control it and the nerves are present to. If you attach a tail to someone, there are no nerve cells to control it. In addition, people don;t have bone structures that can support a tail (I know we have the tailbone and all that, but the structures evolved as our posture evolved to an upright posture.) Finally, there is a question of where we would get such a tail. We can't transplant a monkey tail, becuase the body would reject it (like it would a monkey heart or monkey kidney). And we don;t have a way to make one from human parts. So, to transplant a working tail, we would have to be able to control it, have structures to support it and be able to get one. We can't do any of those. Thanks for your interesting question. Jeff
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