the birth of a baby with a tail can cause tremendous psychological disturbance to the parents . isolated case reports of various types of human tails have been described in the literature . the main features and imaging findings of six patients have been summarised in table 1 . the plain radiographs showed spina bifida in three patients at l 5 and s 1 . summary of main features and imaging findings of all patients other than patient number 5 ( lumbar lipomeningomyelocele ) , all other patients underwent surgical excision . the parents of patient number 5 refused to give consent for the operation and the patient was lost to follow - up . on histopathological examination , the specimen of sacrococcygeal teratoma showed mature tissues that included bones , cartilage , fat and neural tissues , whereas other tails showed mature adipose tissue , blood vessels and nerves . a  vestigial tail  describes a remnant of a structure found in embryonic life or in ancestral forms . during the 5 to 6 week of intrauterine life it contains adipose tissue , connective tissue , central bundles of striated muscle , blood vessels and nerves and is covered by skin . it can move and contract and occurs twice as often in males as in females . none of our patients showed any movement of the tail . unlike the tail of other vertebrates , human tails do not contain vertebral structures . the additional lesions found with pseudo tails are lipomas , teratomas , chondromegaly and gliomas , and there may be elongated parasitic fetus . human tail usually occurs in the lumbosacral region , but it has also been reported in the cervical region . teratoma in the human tail has also been reported . in a review series of 48 skin - covered lumbosacral masses the preoperative assessment includes a complete clinical examination including neurology , plain radiographs of the spine and computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging . an occult spinal lesion has been reported in around 50% of the cases . in another review by lu , tail in the midline of lumbar region tail in the left side of the buttock , away from the midline tail in the midline of lumbar region tail in the midline of lumbar region tail in the midline of lumbar region ( lipomyelomeningocele ) sacrococcygeal teratoma with tail , away from the midline