Other "moles"
While many groups of burrowing animals (pink fairy armadillos, tuco-tucos, mole rats, mole crickets and mole crabs) have developed close physical similarities with moles due to convergent evolution, two of these are so similar to true moles, they are commonly called and thought of as "moles" in common English, although they are completely unrelated to true moles or to each other. These are the golden moles of southern Africa and the marsupial moles of Australia. While difficult to distinguish from each other, they are most easily distinguished from true moles by shovel-like patches on their noses which they use in tandem with their abbreviated forepaws to swim through sandy soils.
Read more about this topic: Mole (animal)
Famous quotes containing the word moles:
“The moles nested in my cellar, nibbling every third potato, and making a snug bed even there of some hair left after plastering and of brown paper; for even the wildest animals love comfort and warmth as well as man, and they survive the winter only because they are so careful to secure them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I support all people on earth
who have bodies like and unlike my body,
skins and moles and old scars,
secret and public hair,
crooked toes. I support
those who have done nothing large.”
—Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952)