Editing Prehensile tail (section)

==Evolution==

One point of interest is the distribution of animals with prehensile tails. The prehensile tail is predominantly a [[New World]] adaptation, especially among mammals.<ref name="Flagle1998" /> Many more animals in [[South America]] have prehensile tails than in [[Africa]] and Southeast Asia. It has been argued that animals with prehensile tails are more common in South America because the [[forest]] there is denser than in Africa or Southeast Asia.<ref name="Organ2008">{{Cite book | title = The Functional Anatomy of Prehensile and Nonprehensile Tails of the Platyrrhini (Primates) and Procyonidae (Carnivora) | last = Organ | first = J. M. | publisher = Johns Hopkins University | year = 2008 | isbn = 9780549312260}}</ref> In contrast, less dense forests such as in Southeast Asia have been observed to have more abundant [[flying and gliding animals|gliding animals]] such as [[colugo]]s or [[flying snake]]s; few gliding vertebrates are found in South America. South American rainforests also differ by having more [[liana]]s, as there are fewer large animals to eat them than in Africa and Asia; the presence of lianas may aid climbers but obstruct gliders.<ref name="rainforest">{{cite web | url = http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/ff/f-rain1a.htm | title = Life in the Rainforest | access-date = 2006-04-15 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060506160044/http://www.szgdocent.org/resource/ff/f-rain1a.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2006-05-06}}</ref> Curiously, [[Australia-New Guinea]] contains many [[mammal]]s with prehensile tails and also many mammals which can glide; in fact, all Australian mammalian gliders have tails that are prehensile to an extent.