Moles and desmans | Talpidae

Mollen en desmans | Topos y desmanes

One family, two ways of living unseen. Moles are cylindrical, with a short coat that stands upright in the skin and will lie either way, so that the animal can also back up its tunnel without rubbing the hairs against the grain. The forelimb is turned outwards and joined to the body just behind the head, the hand is broad as a spade, and a sickle-shaped extra bone at the wrist widens the palm further still. The eyes are minute and often skinned over, external ears are absent, and hunting goes by touch: the snout is set with dense fields of extremely sensitive touch organs, and a permanent tunnel system is patrolled because earthworms fall into it. Those worms are disabled with a bite to the head and stored alive in chambers. The desmans share the family's traits but live in cold running water, with a long, flattened, highly mobile snout, webbed hind feet and a laterally compressed, keeled tail.