Prehensile Tail - Anatomy and Physiology of The Prehensile Tail

Anatomy and Physiology of The Prehensile Tail

Tails are mostly a feature of vertebrates; however, some invertebrates such as scorpions also have appendages that can be considered tails. However, only vertebrates are known to have developed prehensile tails. Many mammals with prehensile tails will have a bare patch to aid gripping. This bare patch is known as a "friction pad."

Read more about this topic:  Prehensile Tail

Famous quotes containing the words anatomy, physiology and/or tail:

    Man is a shrewd inventor, and is ever taking the hint of a new machine from his own structure, adapting some secret of his own anatomy in iron, wood, and leather, to some required function in the work of the world.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Now the twitching stops. Now you are still. We are through with physiology and theology, physics begins.
    Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)

    In fact, now I come to think of it, do we decide questions, at all? We decide answers, no doubt: but surely the questions decide us? It is the dog, you know, that wags the tail—not the tail that wags the dog.
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)