Prehensile tail

A prehensile tail is the tail of an animal that has adapted to grasp or hold objects. This special kind of tail can help animals live and move in places where trees grow tall. Fully prehensile tails can hold and move things, making it easier for animals to find and eat food up in the trees.

When a tail cannot do all of these things, it is called only partially prehensile. These tails are still very useful. They help the animal stay hanging from a branch or give extra help when the animal is climbing. The word prehensile means "able to grasp," coming from an old language that means to take hold of or grab something.

Evolution

One interesting fact is where animals with prehensile tails are found. These special tails are mostly found in the New World, especially among mammals in South America. There are many more animals with prehensile tails in South America than in Africa or Southeast Asia. Some think this is because the forests in South America are thicker, which helps animals that need to grab and hold things with their tails.

In places with less dense forests, like Southeast Asia, there are more animals that can glide through the air, such as colugos or flying snakes. South American rainforests also have more lianas, which are vines that can help animals climb but might block gliders. The region of Australia-New Guinea has many mammals with prehensile tails, and all of its gliding mammals also have tails that can grasp to some degree.

Anatomy and physiology

Tails are mostly found in animals with backbones, though some animals without backbones, like scorpions, also have parts that act like tails. Only animals with backbones have developed tails that can grab and hold things. Many mammals with these special tails have a special bare spot called a "friction pad" that helps them grip better.

Animals with fully prehensile tails

Fish

• Seahorses have fully prehensile tails. They use these tails to attach themselves to objects like seagrass, algae, sponges, corals, or even man-made items.

Mammals

• Binturong is one of the few Old World animals with fully prehensile tails, though they only use the tip of their tail.
• The harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) is another Old World mammal with a fully prehensile tail. You can find it in tall grasses such as cereal crops (especially wheat and oats), roadside verges, hedgerows, reedbeds, dykes, and salt-marshes.
• The tree pangolin is one of the few Old World mammals with a fully prehensile tail.
• Microgale longicaudata is an arboreal species from the tenrec family and has a fully prehensile tail.
• The platypus is a semi-aquatic monotreme found in Australia. Like opossums, platypuses use their tails to carry leaves and other materials to line their nests.
• Many New World monkeys in the family Atelidae, including howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and woolly monkeys, have grasping tails with a bare tactile pad. This is different from their distant Old World monkey relatives, who do not have prehensile tails.
• New World porcupines of the genera Coendou and Chaetomys have fully prehensile tails that help them climb trees and stay from falling.
• The opossum is a marsupial from the Americas. They sometimes use their tails to grip and carry bunches of leaves or bedding materials to their nests.
• Anteaters live in Central and South America. Nine out of ten species of anteater—including the seven species of silky anteater and the two species of tamandua—have prehensile tails.
• The kinkajou from South and Central America is the only other animal in the order Carnivora, besides the binturong, to have this special tail adaptation.

Animals with partially prehensile tails

Mammals

Many animals have tails that help them hold onto things but aren't strong enough to grab and move objects. For example, New World monkeys like the capuchin monkey can use their tails for climbing and dangling, but their tails aren't strong enough to grip well. Tree porcupines found in South America and Mexico all have tails that can hold on. Some rats can wrap their tails around things for balance and briefly hang from objects. Possums in Australia, New Guinea, and nearby islands all have tails that can hold on, though some, like the Acrobatidae, can only do this a little. Other Australian marsupials like the bettongs and potoroos also have tails that can hold on, but only weakly. The small South American marsupial called the Monito del monte also has a tail that can hold on.

Reptiles

Some reptiles have tails that can hold on too. Certain kinds of skink, like the Prehensile-tailed skink, have tails that can grip. Chameleons and many snakes can also use their tails to hold on. The Crested gecko and their relatives have tails that can grip, as do some alligator lizards, like the southern alligator lizard, the Texas alligator lizard, and some arboreal alligator lizards. Young Big-headed turtle and some young turtles from the family Chelydridae also have tails that can hold on. There is also a special kind of lizard called Urocoyledon rasmusseni.

Amphibians

Some amphibians have tails that can help them climb. Many forest-dwelling salamanders in North America, like the clouded salamander, wandering salamander, and arboreal salamander, have tails that can hold on. Others include the Red Hills salamander and cave salamander, as well as some Central and Mexican salamanders like Bolitoglossa sombra and Bolitoglossa mexicana.

Fish

Some fish also have tails that can hold on. Many species in the group Syngnathidae, which includes seahorses and pipefish, have tails that can grip.