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File:Prehensile (PSF).png

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:

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 disimilar 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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