The Star-Nosed Mole is a Contender of the 2018 March Mammal Madness!
If you are unfamiliar with March Mammal Madness I highly suggest reading this page for all the details. I am pleased to announce that America's most amazing mole, the star-nosed mole [Condylura cristata] has been selected to compete with other mammals (and some non-mammals!) this year. Off the bat, the star-nosed mole will be in direct competition with the pygmy hippopotamus in the Great Adaptations Division. There is also a desman in the competition as well, another talpid [mole] animal that has adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. I will be #TeamStarNosedMole, but will throw my support to fellow talpid #TeamDesman as well. My main champion is the star-nosed mole of course.
As we mole-lovers know, few animals have such extraordinary adaptations as the mole, and especially the star-nosed mole. It has adapted to a completely fossorial lifestyle. Fossioral means "digging". The moles have done with a series of adaptations. They include, but are not limited to:
Reduced eyes--vision is not needed as much underground and just get in the way.
Short, dense coat that repels all the dirt that they plow through. Their fur can lay in any direction, backwards or forwards as necessary.
A higher tolerance for increased carbon dioxide and less oxygen due to unique hemoglobins that have a higher affinity for oxygen.
Their short, wide humerus bone from which their large spade-shaped clawed front feet attach, allow for more efficient, forceful movements in soil.
All moles have unique structures for touch along their snouts known as Eimer's organs. The star-nosed mole in particular as the most extreme evolution of these organs--these Eimer's organs are arranged on 22 tentacles radiating from the mole's snout. They have 30,000 Eimer's organs on the star, more than the 17,000 fiber touch fibers on a human hand.
With this star of touch, star-nosed moles can quickly focus on prey in manner similar to eyes. They are the fastest catch-and-eat vertebrate, according to New Scientist, they "This mole finds, identifies and wolfs down its food in an average of just 227 milliseconds – less than quarter of a second. By comparison, it takes people 650 milliseconds to brake after seeing a traffic light turn red."
Moles smell in stereo! You can read about Kenneth Catania's research here.
Moles are often intersex/hermaphroditic. How? While many star-nosed moles are typical XY males, many of the moles that are functionally female have ovotestes. This means in addition to producing estrogen/progesterone in the breeding season, outside of the breeding season they will have elevated levels of testosterone. You can read more in my article for Moles and More! here.
Star-nosed moles can smell underwater by blowing bubbles towards prey, and then re-inhaling those bubbles in rapid-fire succession. You can read more here--it's another one of Catania's studies.
On March 14th, the first round of Great Adaptations will begin for March Mammal Madness. Show your support for #TeamStarNosedMole using this hashtag on twitter and be sure to tune in all month to MMM using the hashtag #2018MMM.
*Update* Unfortunately, the star-nosed mole lost against the 1 seed contender the Pygmy Hippo. Well, we put up a great fight! I like to think the star-nosed mole would have won by smelling out the pygmy hippo before the larger mammal came towards it, and rapidly escaping through a tunnel under the soil.
