Prehensility

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A prehensile tail.

Prehensility is the quality of an appendage or organ that has adapted for grasping or holding. The word is derived from the Latin term prehendere, meaning "to grasp."

Examples

Appendages that can become prehensile include:

• Prehensile feet have evolved many times across many different species
  • The hands of primates are all prehensile to varying degrees
  • The claws of cats are also prehensile
• Prehensile tails – Many extant lizards have prehensile tails (geckos, chameleons, and a species of skink). The fossil record shows prehensile tails in lizards (Simiosauria) going back many million years to the Triassic period (Celeskey, 2005).^{[citation needed]}
• Tongue – of giraffes in particular
• Nose – elephants and tapirs
• Lips – Lake Sturgeon and horses and rhinos

Prehensility is an adaptation that has afforded species a great natural advantage in manipulating their environment for feeding, digging, and defense. It enables many animals, such as primates, to use tools in order to complete tasks that would otherwise be impossible without highly specialized anatomy. For example, chimpanzees have the ability to use sticks to obtain termites and grubs in a manner not dissimilar to human fishing. However, not all prehensile organs are applied to tool use—the giraffe tongue, for instance, is instead used in feeding and self-cleaning behaviors.

Notes

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