Everything about Blind Mole Rat totally explained
Blind mole rats are one of many types of
rodents that are referred to as mole rats. The
hystricognath mole rats of the family
Bathyergidae are completely unrelated, whereas some other forms are also in the family
Spalacidae.
Zokors (subfamily
Myospalacinae) and
root and
bamboo rats (subfamily
Rhizomyinae) are spalacids sometimes referred to as mole rats. Blind mole rats are in the
family Spalacidae, but are unique enough to be given a separate
subfamily,
Spalacinae.
Alternate opinions on
taxonomy consider the blind mole rats to be the only members of the family
Spalacidae and rank other spalacid subfamilies as full families. Other authors group all members of the
superfamily Muroidea into a single family,
Muridae.
Blind mole rats are truly
blind. Their very small eyes are completely covered by a layer of skin. Unlike many other
fossorial rodents, Blind mole rats don't have enlarged front claws and don't appear to use their forearms as a primary digging tool. Digging is almost exclusively conducted using their powerful
front teeth, which are separated from the rest of the mouth by a flap of skin. When a blind mole rat closes its mouth, its incisors are still on the outside. It has been suggested that blind mole rats may have evolved from
spalacids that used their front limbs to dig, because their
olecranon process is relatively large relative to the rest of the arm. The
olecranon process is a part of the
ulna bone where muscles attach, and
digging animals tend to have enlarged olecranon processes to provide a lot of surface for their large and powerful
muscles to attach.
Because they're completely blind, blind mole rats have been important laboratory animals in tests on how
eyes and eye
proteins function.
The Spalacinae contains a two
genera and 8
species. Some authorities treat all species as belonging to a single genus,
Spalax.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Blind Mole Rat'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://blind_mole_rat.totallyexplained.com">Blind mole rat Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
