The Star-Nosed Mole, One Of The Ugliest And Weirdest Animals In The World
With its rose-pink tentacled nose protruding straight from the center of its face, the star-nosed mole has to be considered one of the weirdest animals in the world. If its name didn't give it away, you'd probably wonder whether this animal was even real.
Known by its scientific name Condylura cristata, this weird-looking animal is another species of mole, a subterranean land mammal with poor eyesight. These animals make up for their visual impairment with a keen sense of smell. The nose of the star-nosed mole, in fact, is the most sensitive touch organ known to any living mammal on Earth.
Indeed, the most striking thing about this strange creature is its inimitable snout. While the animal's nickname insinuates a perfect stellar shape, in reality, their eye-catching snouts look more like the tentacles of an alien creature. But their peculiar nose isn't just decoration.
Scientists have uncovered the true smelling capabilities of the star-nosed mole. A 2017 study found that the bizarre mammal's snout contains more than 100,000 nerve fibers, which is five times the amount of "touch" fibers in the human hand.
The way that its snout works closely resembles how our eyesight works. At the center of the mole's star organ is a small area called the touch fovea, which is neurologically organized to resemble an advanced visual system.
When the star-nosed mole is on the move, it shifts the touch fovea around to pick up any scents of interest, like how our eyes scan the words on a page.
Their sensory smell system works at a remarkable speed in conjunction with its brain and mouth when feeding on bugs and earthworms. The identification process carried out through the small, yet highly-sensitive touch fovea is literally a split second, probably even less, during which it quickly determines whether an object is edible or not.
This rapid-fire process effectively exacerbates the speed at which they consume their meals, making them the fastest eating mammal on the planet — despite having incredibly terrible eyesight.
Star-nosed moles are akin to small-sized rodents and are only able to grow as large as a rat. These ground-dwelling creatures are found in the low, moist areas of North America. The star-nosed mole uses its front legs, equipped with sharp claws, to dig deep underneath the soil where it hollows out the Earth to form long stretches of underground pathways.
These animals like to burrow through marsh-like environments and enjoy a moist atmosphere, preferring to dive into the soggy landscape, searching for possible prey. Their highly-sensitive sense of smell is so sharp that they can actually smell underwater — the only land animal known to do so.
