Vocabulary Word
Word: prehensile
Definition: capable of grasping or holding (esp. by wrapping around); Ex. prehensile tails
Definition: capable of grasping or holding (esp. by wrapping around); Ex. prehensile tails
Sentences Containing 'prehensile'
This is the case with the male Ibla, and in a truly extraordinary manner with the Proteolepas: for the carapace in all other cirripedes consists of the three highly important anterior segments of the head enormously developed, and furnished with great nerves and muscles; but in the parasitic and protected Proteolepas, the whole anterior part of the head is reduced to the merest rudiment attached to the bases of the prehensile antennae.
We shall, also, presently see that the tail is a highly useful prehensile organ to some of the species; and its use would be much influence by its length.
The extremity of the tail in some American monkeys has been converted into a wonderfully perfect prehensile organ, and serves as a fifth hand.
If the harvest mouse had been more strictly arboreal, it would perhaps have had its tail rendered structurally prehensile, as is the case with some members of the same order.
It is, however, possible that the long tail of this monkey may be of more service to it as a balancing organ in making its prodigious leaps, than as a prehensile organ.
It is generally admitted that the ordinary spines serve as a protection; and if so, there can be no reason to doubt that those furnished with serrated and movable branches likewise serve for the same purpose; and they would thus serve still more effectively as soon as by meeting together they acted as a prehensile or snapping apparatus.
On the other hand, the transportal of the lower eye of a flat-fish to the upper side of the head, and the formation of a prehensile tail, may be attributed almost wholly to continued use, together with inheritance.
When this is completed they are fixed for life: their legs are now converted into prehensile organs; they again obtain a well-constructed mouth; but they have no antennae, and their two eyes are now reconverted into a minute, single, simple eye-spot.
Had this tail any prehensile power, I should straightway bethink me of Darmonodes' elephant that so frequented the flower-market, and with low salutations presented nosegays to damsels, and then caressed their zones.
On more accounts than one, a pity it is that the whale does not possess this prehensile virtue in his tail; for I have heard of yet another elephant, that when wounded in the fight, curved round his trunk and extracted the dart.
Opossums probably diverged from the basic South American marsupials in the late Cretaceous or early Paleocene.They are small to medium-sized marsupials, about the size of a large house cat, with a long snout and prehensile tail.
It is found in Belize, Colombia, Ecuador, Grenada, Honduras, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.
Robinson's mouse opossums move along tree branches and vines with the help of a prehensile tail and may leap between gaps as they search for fruit and insects.
The black facial mask is always present but varies in size according to the region of that individual. It possesses a prehensile tail about 1.3 times its body length, which is covered in fine white hairs.
The tail is prehensile, and thickly furred at the base, which may be widened by fat stores beneath the skin.
However, many more animals in South America have prehensile tails than in Africa and Southeast Asia.
In dense forest there is not room to glide, but a prehensile tail is very useful for moving from tree to tree.
Curiously, Australia contains many mammals with prehensile tails and also many mammals which can glide; in fact, all Australian mammalian gliders have tails that are prehensile to an extent.
Gracile mouse opossums, excluding the fat-tailed mouse opposum, in general, have a prehensile tail that is thin and really long.
Legion is shown to be inhabited by thousands of personalities, each with its own superhuman power, some of which have manifest physically in such manners as lycanthropy and a prehensile tongue.
They are skillful climbers and can cross large distances in trees by jumping, using their non-prehensile tails to aid in balancing.
The Wonder Twins have a pet Space Monkey called Gleek who had a useful prehensile tail and who could act as a conduit for the twins to activate their powers should they be out of reach.
Each foot has five digits and the big toe on the hindfoot is opposable, which, along with its prehensile tail, makes Anderson's mouse opossums well adapted for a life in the trees.
Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, serpent-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least . Each of these tentacles (which have been loosely compared to functioning like the creature's tongue) terminates in a toothed mouth of its own.
The graboid's common name is derived from these prehensile tentacles, which "grab" prey and suck it back down the graboid's hungry gullet.
Graboids have a trio of long, powerful, snake-like tentacles, which are prehensile and have a reach of at least ten feet.