Dogs use their tails to communicate. Eastimages/Moment via Getty Images Whether they belong to reptiles, insects, birds or mammals, tails serve a wide variety of purposes. Modern animals use their ...

Tails might look like nature’s afterthought but for many animals, they’re multitasking power tools. Whether it’s balancing, fighting, flirting, or escaping predators, tails do way more than just wag.

For example, a cheetah’s tail is long and skinny; in that narrow space, the spots coalesce into stripes. “A simple mechanism can create an amazing, diverse and rich variety of patterns,” says Seita ...

Q. My third-grader came up with these two questions: Which animals do not have tails? How many different ways do animals use tails? A. Most vertebrates, that is, animals with a backbone, have an ...

Animal tails come in all shapes and sizes and serve many purposes, from balance and communication to defense and mating displays. While some animals have fairly small tails, others carry massive, ...