Many also have long, prehensile tails capable of bearing their weight, which they use while climbing and reaching for fruit.

Nor is it necessarily true that older political leaders invariably hang on to their seats as if with what Orwell called prehensile behinds.

The Brazil nuts they had been counting on to sustain them were in short supply, and the piglike tapir, with its prehensile snout, was elusive.

With their prehensile lips — they are distantly related to elephants — they grabbed the lettuce and nibbled.

The genus name comes from the Greek for “prehensile foot,” which the scientists chose because this is the oldest known cephalopod with suckers.