Submerged sniffer.The fleshy pink snout on a star-nosed mole does more than turn heads. Its nose enables the mole to smell on land and underwater--something no other mammal is known to do. Kenneth Catania, a biologist at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, tested these swimming moles to see if they could track the scent of an earthworm earthworm, terrestrial, cylindrical segmented worm of the class Oligochaeta. There are 2,200 earthworm species, found all over the world except in arid and arctic regions and ranging in size from 1 in. (2.5 cm) to the 11-ft (330-cm) giant worms of the tropics. while underwater. The moles quickly blew bubbles and sucked them back into their noses at about the same rate as mammals sniff on land. The unusual smelling behavior helped the moles find the wormy worm·y adj. worm·i·er, worm·i·est 1. Infested with or damaged by worms. 2. Suggestive of a worm. worm snack 75 to 100 percent of the time. "It's surprising to see them exhale a bubble and inhale the same bubble to find food," says Catania. Scientists should be on the lookout for in search of; looking for. See also: Lookout more semiaquatic sem·i·a·quat·ic adj. Adapted for living or growing in or near water; not entirely aquatic: a semiaquatic plant or animal. mammals that do the same, he says. |
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