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Prehensile Tail

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior
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Prehensile tail: The tail of any vertebrate that is adapted for grasping can hold objects or can support some or all of the body weight of animal while stationary (i.e., feeding posture) or during locomotion.

Anthropoid: A primate belonging to the suborder Anthropoidea that has a fused mandibular symphysis, fused frontal bone, postorbital closure, a greater reliance on vision than olfaction, and lacking a rhinarium, tapetum lucidum, grooming claws, or dental comb; the group of primates including old and new world monkeys, apes, and humans.

Platyrrhini: A radiation of neotropical anthropoids belonging to the infraorder Platyrrhini and defined by their biogeographical distribution (i.e., Central and South America), nasal, auditory and cranial morphology, and dental formula (2133/2133).

Prehensile tails are known for four of the seven classes of vertebrates (Table 1). They are differentiated from nonprehensile tails by being adapted for grasping, holding objects or supporting some or all...

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Correspondence to Andrew Deane .

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Deane, A. (2017). Prehensile Tail. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_478-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_478-1

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