vibrissa

Known formally as a vibrissa, a whisker is longer and thicker than normal cat hair.

Its rib cage has a “collapsibility function,” and once it gets its head in, a rat uses its vibrissae — long whiskers on its nose and face — to feel to make sure it’s safe.

The idea that our nose hairs, known medically as vibrissae, might offer protection against infectious germs goes back more than a century.

Sprouting on the face are whiskers called vibrissae.

“I thought that the vibrissae about my nostrils detected something unique while I was outside.”