Tail

Tail

The tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals, reptiles, and birds. While tails are primarily a feature of vertebrates, some invertebrates including scorpions and springtails, as well as snails and slugs, have tail-like appendages that are sometimes referred to as tails. Tailed objects are sometimes referred to as "caudate" and the part of the body associated with or proximal to the tail are given the adjective "caudal".

Read more about Tail.

Famous quotes containing the word tail:

    The only people who treasure systems are those whom the whole truth evades, who want to catch it by the tail. A system is just like truth’s tail, but the truth is like a lizard. It will leave the tail in your hand and escape; it knows that it will soon grow another tail.
    Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)

    Dizzily down the abyss he wheels—
    So fell Darius. Upon his crown,
    In the midst of the barn-yard he came down,
    In a wonderful whirl of tangled strings,
    Broken braces and broken springs,
    Broken tail and broken wings,
    John Townsend Trowbridge (1827–1916)

    What a wonderful bird the frog are—
    When he stand he sit almost;
    When he hop, he fly almost.
    He ain’t got no sense hardly;
    He ain’t got no tail hardly either.
    When he sit, he sit on what he ain’t got almost.
    Unknown. The Frog (l. 1–6)