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Definition: Golden Mole |
Golden MoleNoun1. Mole of southern Africa having iridescent guard hairs mixed with the underfur. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Golden moles Scientific classification\
Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Afrosoricida Family: Chrysochloridae Genera Eremitalpa
Chrysospalax
Chrysochloris
Cryptochloris
Carpitalpa
Chlorotalpa
Calcochloris
Amblysomus
NeamblysomusGolden moles are small, insectivorous burrowing mammals native to southern Africa. They bear a remarkable resemblance to the marsupial moles of Australia, so much so that, the marsupial/placental divide notwithstanding, they were once thought to be related!
Golden moles live almost exclusively underground. Like several other burrowing mammals with similar habits, have short legs with powerful digging claws, very dense fur that repels dirt and moisture, and toughened skin, particularly on the head. They retain eyes but they are non-functional and covered with skin and fur, the ears are just tiny openings, and, like the marsupial moles, they have an enlarged leather-like pad to protect their nostrils.
They range in size from about 8 to about 20 cm. They have muscular shoulders and an enlarged third claw to aid digging on the forelimbs, with no fifth digit and vestigal first and fourth; the hind feet retain all five toes and are webbed to allow efficient backward shoveling of the soil loosened with the front claws.
Like most of the mammals that originated in Gondwana, golden moles used to be regarded as rather 'primitive' creatures: their low resting metabolic rate and their ability to switch off thermoregulation when inactive, however, are no longer regarded as indications that golden moles are undeveloped 'reptilian mammals', but rather as essential adaptations to a harsh climate. By going into a torpor when resting or during cold weather, they conserve energy and reduce their need for food. Similarly, they have developed particularly efficient kidneys and most species do not need to drink water at all.
Of the 21 species of golden mole, no less than 11 are threatened with extinction. The primary causes are sand mining, poor agricultural practices, increasing urbanisation, and predation by domestic cats and dogs.
As with many groups, the classification of the golden moles is undergoing an upheaval at present in the light of the flood of new genetic information becoming available. They have traditionally been listed with the shrews, hedgehogs and a grab-bag of small, difficult-to-place creatures as part of the order Insectivora. Some authorities retain this classification, at least for the time being. Others group the golden moles with the tenrecs in a new order which, unhelpfully, may be known as either Afrosoricida or Tenrecomorpha. For simplicity, the former is used here.
- ORDER AFROSORICIDA
- Family Tenrecidae: tenrecs, about 30 species in 10 genera
- Family Chrysochloridae
- Subfamily: Chrysochlorinae
- Grant's Golden Mole Eremitalpa granti
- Giant Golden Mole, Chrysospalax trevelyani
- Rough-haired Golden Mole, Chrysospalax villosus
- Cape Golden Mole, Chrysochloris asiatica
- Visagie’s Golden Mole, Chrysochloris visagiei
- Stuhlmann’s Golden Mole, Chrysochloris stuhlmanni
- Van Zyl’s Golden Mole, Cryptochloris zyli
- De Winton’s Golden Mole, Cryptochloris wintoni
- Arend’s Golden Mole, Carpitalpa arendsi
- Duthie’s Golden Mole, Chlorotalpa duthieae
- Sclater’s Golden Mole, Chlorotalpa sclateri
- Subfamily: Amblysominae
- Yellow Golden Mole, Calcochloris obtusirostris
- Congo Golden Mole, Calcochloris leucorhina
- Somali Golden Mole, Calcochloris tytonis
- Hottentot Golden Mole, Amblysomus hottentotus
- Fynbos Golden Mole, Amblysomus corriae
- Highveld Golden Mole, Amblysomus septentrionalis
- Robust Golden Mole, Amblysomus robustus
- Marley’s Golden Mole, Amblysomus marleyi
- Gunning’s Golden Mole, Neamblysomus gunningi
- Juliana’s Golden Mole, Neamblysomus julianae
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Golden mole."
Crosswords: Golden Mole |
| English words defined with "golden mole": Chrysochlore. (references) |
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| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Heterocephalus glaber, mole commun, Octhagoriscus mola, Talpa europaea, VE Mola mola, VE poisson lune. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-g-l-l-m-n-o-o" | |
-2 letters: melodeon. | |
-3 letters: gloomed, goodmen, oenomel. | |
-4 letters: dolmen, dongle, doolee, gelled, genome, golden, legend, legmen, longed, loomed, melled, mongoe, mongol, mooned, noodge, noodle, omened. | |
-5 letters: demon, donee, emend, genom, geode, glede, gleed, gloom, gnome, golem, ledge, lemon, leone, loden, lodge, longe, looed, melon, model, monde, mondo, mongo, mooed, odeon, ogled, olden. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)47 6F 6C 64 65 6E 4D 6F 6C 65 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000111 01101111 01101100 01100100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01001101 01101111 01101100 01100101 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)G o l d e n   M o l e |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0047 006F 006C 0064 0065 006E 004D 006F 006C 0065 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)418178707180247817871 |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
