Look at the various animals on Earth – or rather, look just behind them – and you’ll see a vast variety of tails! Tails and tail-like structures are often simple extensions of the body, and yet they’ve been adapted and modified into many shapes with many functions, and because they’re often so important to an animal’s lifestyle, they can be especially useful for paleontologists trying to understand ancient animals. In this episode, we’ll discuss definitions, diversity, functions, and fossils of tails.In the news: drought fossils, early fish jaws, early fish fins, and paleontology video games.Time markers: Intro & Announcements: News: Main discussion, Part 1: Main discussion, Part 2: Patron question: Check out our blog for bonus info and pictures: http://commondescentpodcast.wordpress.com/Follow this link for a 30-day free trial to Audible! www.audibletrial.com/CommonDescentJoin us on Patreon to support the podcast and enjoy bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/commondescentpodcast Or make a one-time donation via PayPal: https://tinyurl.com/4c68u4hpFind merch at the Common Descent Store! http://zazzle.com/common_descentJoin the Common Descent Discord server! https://discord.gg/CwPBxdh9EvFollow and Support us on: Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommonDescentPC Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/commondescentpodcast Instagram: @commondescentpodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCePRXHEnZmTGum2r1l2mduw PodBean: https://commondescentpodcast.podbean.com/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-common-descent-podcast/id1207586509?mt=2You can email us at commondescentpodcast(at)gmail.com Or send us physical mail at: The Common Descent Podcast 1735 W State of Franklin Rd. Ste 5 #165 Johnson City, TN 37604The Intro and Outro music is “On the Origin of Species” by Protodome. More music like this at http://ocremix.org.Musical Interludes are "Professor Umlaut" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/