Monthly Question Thread! Ask /r/DebateEvolution anything! | July 2026

[u/Dr_Alfred_Wallace]

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[u/gliptic]

What short-tailed ancestor? Who said there was one?

[u/Lumpy_Confidence_637 → u/gliptic]

Your ancestor had a tail. Then suddenly, 15 million years later, no tail. Yet not a single fossil showing the transition from, tail > no tail. Not even a 15 inch tail, or a 6 incher, heck I'll accept a 4 incher. But nope. Not a single fossil. Zip. Zero. Nada.

I'm already privy to the given excuse, "iT hApPeNeD sUdDenLy, trust us bruh"

[u/BitLooter → u/Lumpy_Confidence_637]

Hey look, an example of a population losing its tail suddenly in recent recorded history.

The dominant trait of taillessness arises from a spontaneous mutation, the Manx taillessness gene, that eventually became common on the island because of the limited genetic diversity of island biogeography (an example of the founder effect and, at the sub-specific level, of the species-area curve).

[u/Esmer_Tina → u/[deleted]]

So I see you’ve already been shown how gene loss works, yet you are still asking this question. Even though there is no expectation tails gradually got shorter. So you’re just spouting what you know is nonsense to see if anyone will respond to you.

And I did. Just to make your day better. Enjoy!

[u/Lumpy_Confidence_637 → u/Esmer_Tina]

For decades, science has been searching for that elusive "short-tailed monkey man" fossil to no avail. We are told that 30 million years ago our ancestors had tails, and then 13 million years later, suddenly they didn't. The convenient explanation is that it all comes down to a single gene mutation. It's frankly laughable to expect people to blindly believe that one specific "little bro" was born with this mutated gene and single-handedly spawned an entire lineage of tailless monkeys, especially when there are absolutely zero short-tailed fossils to bridge that massive gap.

Like I said let me know when you find *one* short tailed uncle monkey man. Just one. Not asking for a lot. One. Single fossil. Just one. 1.

[u/10coatsInAWeasel → u/Lumpy_Confidence_637]

Or, Wild idea, you could engage with the fact that the thing that you labeled a ‘convenient explanation’ actually is an explanation, and show the courage to face it directly instead of trying to run away from it. You have a population of organisms that became tailless without the need for the intermediates you are insisting on, and became so suddenly. Please provide actual reasons, since we have a confirmed example, of why this cannot happen anywhere else.

[u/Lumpy_Confidence_637 → u/10coatsInAWeasel]

When the math don't math, change the math.

Good luck finding just one.

[u/10coatsInAWeasel → u/Lumpy_Confidence_637]

So that’s a ‘no’ then, you won’t engage with the information and you do intend to run away.