Prehensile tail

A prehensile-tailed spider monkey

A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has adapted to grasp or hold objects.[1] Fully prehensile tails can be used to hold and manipulate objects, and in particular to aid arboreal creatures in finding and eating food in the trees. If the tail cannot be used for this it is considered only partially prehensile; such tails are often used to anchor an animal's body to dangle from a branch, or as an aid for climbing. The term prehensile means "able to grasp" (from the Latin prehendere, to take hold of, to grasp).[2]

  1. ^ Fleagle, J. G. (1998). Primate Adaptation and Evolution (2nd ed.). Academic Press. pp. 172. ISBN 978-0-12-260341-9.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Roze2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).