Premature baby born with 12cm ‘tail’ and 4cm-wide ball attached, say doctors

A bizarre baby has been born with a 12cm real human tail protruding from its left buttock, complete with a freakish 4cm-wide ball on the end

It baffled doctors at Albert Sabin Children's Hospital in Fortaleza, Brazil, who eventually surgically removed the fleshy ball and chain.

The birth and subsequent surgery have since been logged in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery Case Reports, which shows fascinating photos of the appendage and explains how it came to be.

It transpires that we all had a tail when we were in the womb but, a few weeks after gestation, it is usually reabsorbed into the body.

However, in incredibly rare instances this does not occur and the tail continues to grow.

Doctors in Brazil have also confirmed that this child's tail contained no cartilage or bone, making it a "true human tail" and one of just 40 ever documented. According to the journal, the first report of such a tail dates back to the 19th century.

The child, born sometime before January this year, came into the world 35 weeks premature but with no major complications (except for the tail).

Tests before the birth had failed to pick up the tail but luckily an ultrasound scan confirmed that it wasn't attached to the child's nervous system.

This allowed surgeons to remove it, but it is not yet clear whether it was causing the baby pain or if its parents requested the tail be snipped.

Analysis of the tail after it was chopped revealed that the ball was made of fat and embryonic connective tissue, whereas the tail itself was just boneless tissue.

The journal report concluded that the true human tail was a "rare congenital anomaly" and admitted that the science behind why some embryonic tails aren't reabsorbed "is not fully understood".

Humanity's ape ancestors are thought to have lost their tails some 25 million years ago, possibly due to a genetic mutation that improved our upright mobility.

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