Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2020 May 26

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May 26

Lion's Tail

I saw a documentary several months ago and I can’t shake what was mentioned and it has continued to play on my mind. Googling as hard as I can, I am not able to find any answers. I am fairly well informed on African wildlife, yet this is the first time I have heard of this. Please could you tell me if this is true or not, and if true, please provide pictures. It was said that a lion has a bony part in the tuft at the end of the tail which can be used to whip animals during hunting and which can be very painful. Thanks 86.186.232.80 (talk) 13:01, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Try googling "lion skeleton diagram". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:45, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Thanks Baseball Bugs, useful as always. A diagram doesn't allow one to know if the final bone in the tail can be used as suggested. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.232.80 (talk) 14:47, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

You're welcome. Feel free to make a donation in my name, to your favorite Humanities charity. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 02:12, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

See sarcasm. You don't have to answer every question with a pseudo intellectual quip. You can just say (to yourself) "I don't know". -- 86.8.202.97 10:20, 27 May 2020‎

...Said the cowardly anonymous user. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:34, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

... said one who prefers to "speak up and remove all doubt". —Tamfang (talk) 03:47, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

For the rest of the answer, see Lion#Description, which confirms the bone spur but says its function is unknown. 70.67.193.176 (talk) 15:25, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

Thank you, that was very useful, it is appreciated. Does anyone have a picture of this spur? Thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.186.232.80 (talk) 16:01, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

One here (bottom photo). Alansplodge (talk) 18:18, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

We're not supposed to do speculation here but I can't resist: I wonder if the spur might be a counterweight. Smaller cats such as housecats use their tails to stay balanced while running and jumping. No idea if that would work for something the size of a lion. 2601:648:8202:96B0:3567:50D5:8BFF:4588 (talk) 20:01, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

In an 1873 article, a Professor Turner noted that the traditional supposed purpose of the spur was that the lion could "whip itself" into a frenzy, citing a passage in the Iliad. Turner (1873). "On the so-called Prickle or Claw at the end of the tail of the Lion and other Felines". Journal of Anatomy and Physiology. 7: 271–273. PMID 17230977. I should note that he seems to also claim that such a structure exists in the leopard, but from what I've read elsewhere, the lion is the only feline with such a structure. So it's possible that the samples Professor Turner examine in that article were documenting something else (particularly given he concludes the spur is "integument", or hardened skin tissue, rather than the bone that the lion's spur is evidently made of). 199.66.69.67 (talk) 22:36, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

The Quarterly Journal of Foreign and British Medicine and Surgery: Volume V, 1823, p. 479 has some more about the classical references; the "Blumenbach" mentioned is Johann Friedrich Blumenbach. Alansplodge (talk) 10:47, 27 May 2020 (UTC)