Talk:Prehensility

Speaking as a biologist and physician, I believe whales' penises are prehensile, at least to some extent. Consider how difficult it would be to position a multi-ton body in water, to use a rigid penis for penetration in another large moving body... Also, videos of whales mating certainly suggest some active movements to search for the vaginal opening. If nature can make other extremities which voluntarily move in various directions, such as arms, fingers, or tails, why not penises???

A dolphins penis is not prehensile, thats an urban legend. Show me one legit source where it claims it is prehensile. 24.168.74.84 04:33, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure human feet are prehensile. I pick things up with my feet fairly frequently. How exactly does that not count? Stylish Alastor the Stylish 18:27, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

Whale's penis - prehensile?
A Whale's Penis IS prehensile, to a certain degree (see penis). I saw it on a David Attenborough documentary. and he is GOD
 * There has to be a better reference than a Wikipedia article though. And just for the record the Penis article says whales and dolphins can move and to a certain degree bend their penis tips to facilitate mating. - TwoOars ( T 20:13, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * This is the only mention I found of a dolphin's prehensile penis. It is no good, it is a quiz book. :( - TwoOars ( T 20:44, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
 * From what I understand, whale and dolphin penises are somewhat flexible but are not actually considered prehensile. I've looked up the claim a number of times, because people add it to the article every few weeks or months, but I have not found any reliable source that supports the idea that they're actually prehensile (they're pretty much repetitions of the same line from furry and zoophilia websites).  I have, however, found several sources that explain in greater detail why cetacean penises are not prehensile.  I would recommend leaving the claim out until someone can find a reliable scientific source to back it up.  (It's nice to know that my many years of education have culminated in... talking about whale penises on the internet.  Yay!)  -Sasha Kopf 20:50, 24 April 2007 (UTC)

I've worked with dolphins. The reason you're not finding any LEGIT source making that claim is that it simply is not true. JT (talk) 20:16, 8 November 2011 (UTC)
 * There is one reliable source:
 * It is published by Adams Media, an imprint of F+W Media, a reliable source.--RightCowLeftCoast (talk) 07:58, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Okay, the source for the Tapir is fine, that shows it's usage for other purposes. But the source for the Dolphin should not count. That is a dolphin having intercourse with a fish body, it is in no way "grasping or holding" the fish. It's no different than if the dolphin were having intercourse with a hole in the ground.2605:A601:916:FC00:6D39:423D:4B2D:7852 (talk) 06:27, 31 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Okay, the source for the Tapir is fine, that shows it's usage for other purposes. But the source for the Dolphin should not count. That is a dolphin having intercourse with a fish body, it is in no way "grasping or holding" the fish. It's no different than if the dolphin were having intercourse with a hole in the ground.2605:A601:916:FC00:6D39:423D:4B2D:7852 (talk) 06:27, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Lips?
It isn't clear to me how a lip can be prehensile. I'd think most animals can hold something in their mouths - I don't see how orangutans, horses or rhinos would be special in this respect. Can these animals curl their upper lips upwards, or their lower lips downwards, in order to hold something? Or is there extra space between the lip and the teeth in which something can be held? Or what? — Smjg (talk) 16:40, 3 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I don't know that it's distinguished in some way from other animals such as humans, but from personal experience, horses do have a marvelously flexible and strong lip which they use in domestication to pull hay from wall feeders (and presumably do the same for ground and tree foliage in the wild). Arlo James Barnes 13:56, 21 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Most animals can hold things in their mouths, I think. But not all animals can grasp things with their lips. I have witnessed the prehensile lips of horses. They grasp things with their lips much like humans grasp things with their hands. Humans also have prehensile lips. 71.29.71.214 (talk) 19:29, 13 August 2020 (UTC)
 * Can these animals curl their upper lips upwards, or their lower lips downwards, in order to hold something? Yes! Horses do just that. So do humans. 71.29.71.214 (talk) 19:33, 13 August 2020 (UTC)