Babies Born With Tails Need Greater Medical Attention, Case Is Not A Harmless Vestigial Trait
In rare cases, some babies are born with details. Some claim they are benign and should not be a cause of concern. However, a new report suggested otherwise.
Babies Born With Tails May Suffer From Neurological Defects
Although it may sound absurd, individuals can occasionally be born with long, boneless appendages at the back of their bodies that can reach up to 18 cm in length.
Approximately 40 infants have been identified in official records as having "true tails," surgically easily removed soft, boneless protrusions resembling fingers, ScienceAlert reported.
Nevertheless, the researchers found that uncommon case studies frequently cause "an unusual amount of interest, excitement, and anxiety." This often occurs because the "tails" are viewed as innocuous evolutionary relics of a long-lost progenitor.
But according to a 2008 paper, "true vestigial tails are not benign" because they might be linked to underlying dysraphism. Human newborns with tails frequently suffer severe corresponding neurological abnormalities.
Nearly 50 percent of the cases examined involved spina bifida occulta or meningocele. This shows that kids born with tails require more extensive medical care than a straightforward operation. Furthermore, it vehemently refutes the claim made in a 1985 publication that "the true human tail is a benign condition not associated with any underlying [spinal] cord malformation."
In fact, as early as 1995, experts argued that neuroimaging and surgery should be performed on them to ensure that kids born with both "true" and "pseudo" tails usually developed.
If a real tail originates directly from the embryonic tail, as some scientists have proposed, is not yet known. The need for more research on the location of the congenital anomaly is partly due to the rarity of these case studies. No matter where a baby's tail originated, evidence strongly implies that it is a congenital disability, not a cute vestigial attribute.
Why Are Some Babies Born With Tails?
Human neonates can be born with two different kinds of "tails," according to a seminal report published in 1985. As previously indicated, the first is a real or vestige tail that was once assumed to have been passed down from our ancestors.
A "pseudotail" is a different kind of tailbone protrusion that occasionally does contain bone. Since the pseudotail has historically been linked to birth abnormalities, it is not considered vestigial.
It turns out that both of these unusual appendages most likely signify a spinal dysraphism or an imperfect fusion of the spinal column. This shows that their development is a worrying interruption in an embryo's growth caused most likely by a combination of factors rather than a harmless "regression" in the evolutionary process.
Various disorders that affect the spine, spinal cord, or nerve roots and are present at birth are referred to as spinal dysraphism. All types of spinal dysraphism are caused by a developmentally very early occurrence, per Columbia Neurosurgery.
A sheet of cells termed the neural plate folds up to create the neural tube about the third week of development. The neural tube divides into two parts: the top portion forms the brain, and the other portion forms the spine and spinal cord. When a portion of the neural tube that will eventually become the spine and spinal cord does not completely shut, it causes spinal dysraphism.
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