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".

Function

Animal tails are used in a variety of ways. They provide a source of locomotion for fish and some other forms of marine life. Many land animals use their tails to brush away flies and other biting insects. Some species, including cats and kangaroos, use their tails for balance; and some, such as New World monkeys and opossums, have what are known as prehensile tails, which are adapted to allow them to grasp tree branches.

Tail (disambiguation)

A tail is the section at the rear end of an animal's body, a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso.

Tail or tails may also refer to:

Science and technology

  • Tails (operating system) or The Amnesic Incognito Live System, a Linux distribution designed for anonymity and privacy
  • Tail (Unix), a Unix program used to display the last few lines of a file
  • Tail, one of the extreme ends of a probability density function
  • Terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrates
  • Entertainment

  • Tails (album), an album by Lisa Loeb
  • Tails (character), a character in the Sonic the Hedgehog video games and comics
  • Tail, a character in the Kaiketsu Zorori movie
  • Other uses

  • Tails, the reverse side of a coin
  • Tailcoat or its rear section, a type of coat/suit used for evening dress
  • Tail, the final batsmen in the batting order for cricket
  • Fee tail or tail, an obsolescent term in common law
  • Jabot (window), a kind of soft window treatment
  • See also

  • Aircraft tail, the empennage of an aircraft
  • Comet tail, a visible part of a comet
  • Tail (song)

    "Tail" is the first single by Powderfinger from their debut album Parables for Wooden Ears. The music video for "Tail" appeared on the bonus DVD of Dream Days at the Hotel Existence. The version used in the video is shorter and slightly different in instrumentation.

    Track listing

    All songs composed by Powderfinger. All lyrics by Bernard Fanning Lead Vocalist.

  • "Tail"
  • "May Morning"
  • "Slip"

  • Drift

    Art, film, and literature

  • Drift (novel), a 2002 Doctor Who novel
  • Drift (film series), a series of Japanese films written and directed by Futoshi Jinno
  • Drift, 2007 experimental short film by Max Hattler
  • Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, a book by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow
  • Drift (Transformers), a fictional character
  • Drift (2013 Australian film), an Australian film starring Sam Worthington
  • Drift (2013 Belgian film), a Belgian art house film
  • Dérive, French for "drift", and a psychogeographical term for a method of spontaneous exploration
  • Geography

  • Driftwood, wood that has been washed onto the shore or beach of a sea, lake, or river
  • Battle of Rorke's Drift, 1879 battle between British and Zulu forces
  • Drift, Cornwall, a village
  • Drift Reservoir, near Drift, Cornwall
  • Daventry International Railfreight Terminal (DIRFT), a rail-road intermodal freight terminal in Northamptonshire, England.
  • Velddrif, a town on the west coast Bergrivier Local Municipality
  • Drift, Kentucky
  • Industry

    Drift (telecommunication)

    In telecommunication, a drift is a comparatively long-term change in an attribute, value, or operational parameter of a system or equipment. The drift should be characterized, such as "diurnal frequency drift" and "output level drift." Drift is usually undesirable and unidirectional, but may be bidirectional, cyclic, or of such long-term duration and low excursion rate as to be negligible.

    Drift is also common in pseudo-synchronised streaming applications, such as low-latency audio streaming over TCP/IP. Normally both ends of a streaming connection would stay in-sync with a master clock but TCP/IP does not provide this 'master clock' mechanism. Therefore applications running fixed clocks will drift apart over time and glitches will occur. This is usually fixed by controlling jitter or drift, by slightly altering the clock speed at one end of the connection.

    References

    MIL-STD-188

    See also

  • Clock drift

  • Drift (film series)

    The Drift (ドリフト Dorifuto) film series consist of street racing films produced by Geneon Universal Entertainment released between 2006 to 2008. All the films are set on racing touge roads.

    Film series

    Drift 6 Z (2008)

    Known as Drift Z on Hong Kong releases.

    Drift 7 R (2008)

    Known as Drift GT-R on Hong Kong releases.


    Podcasts:

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    Latest News for: tail drift

    Flow review – beguiling, Oscar-winning animation is the cat’s whiskers

    The Observer 23 Mar 2025
    A last-minute reprieve comes in the shape of a drifting sailboat, but the cat is outraged to discover that the vessel must be shared with another passenger – an unflappable and permanently chilled-out . As the boat drifts, it takes on other creatures.

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    Potter Leader-Enterprise 20 Mar 2025
    Years ago, I was a young angler who waited patiently for the April trout opener ... Across the head of a long pool, I let my white rooster tail spinner drift downstream next to a fallen log before beginning the retrieve ... ....

    The internet that could have been was ruined by billionaires

    The Real News Network 17 Mar 2025
    And we are at the tail end of 40 years of technocratic neoliberalism that is really grounded in Margaret Thatcher’s idea that there is no alternative, which is really a way of saying don’t try and think of alternatives.
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