Mole's Star

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Furthermore, just behind the 11th ray of the star, the star-nosed mole has modified front teeth that form the equivalent of a pair of tweezers. Thus, opposite to other species, the somatosensory representation of the tactile fovea is not correlated with anatomical parameters but rather is highly correlated with patterns of behavior. Instead, the hypothesis proposed by Catania, in which the function of the appendage is purely tactile, seems to be more feasible and is the one currently accepted. It is the only extant member of the tribe Condylurini and genus Condylura, and it has more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors in touch organs, known as Eimer's organs, with which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around. In only 8 milliseconds it can decide whether something is edible—in fact, this is one of the fastest responses to a stimulus in the animal kingdom [15] and is the reason why the star-nosed mole was lately recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s fastest forager.

One proposes the development of the structure of the star as a consequence of the selective pressure of the star-nosed mole's wetland habitat.A former education lecturer and classroom teacher, Mary is the author of ‘Developing Children’s Critical Thinking through Picturebooks’ (Routledge 2015).

These domes, known as Eimer’s organs, are the only type of receptor organs found in the star of the star-nosed mole, which proves that the star-like structure has clearly a mechanical functioning. But after several days, Mole misses his favourite rock so pops out of his burrow and finds the world is in darkness. You may also be interested in Fish Everywhere, another title by Britta Teckentrup which celebrates the natural world. It is associated with a Merkel cell- neurite complex at the base of the cell column, a lamellated corpuscle in the dermis just below the column and a series of free nerve endings that originate from myelinated fibers in the dermis, run through the central column and end in a ring of terminal swellings just below the outer keratinized skin surface.During exploration, the mole's star-like appendage produces brief touches which compress Eimer’s organ against objects or substrate. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. In 1993, Edwin Gould and colleagues proposed that the star-like proboscis had electroreceptors and that the mole was therefore able to sense the electrical field of its prey [26] prior to mechanical inspection by its appendages. The range of landscapes from underground burrows to the vastness of the night sky is simply and well executed and never threatens to overwhelm the child reader.

The star itself is a centimeter across and thus has a diameter slightly smaller than a typical human fingertip.Stimuli cause depolarization of the receptor membrane, resulting in a receptor potential and therefore a current towards the node of Ranvier. The use of the 11th appendage of the tactile fovea is surprisingly similar to the manner in which human eyes explore details of a visual scene. Each Eimer’s organ is supplied by a number of primary afferents, thus the star is densely innervated. It appears that constant and repeated contact with the soil damages the sensory organs, which have a thin keratinized epidermis.

This large amount of specialized receptors makes the star ultrasensitive – about 6 times more sensitive than the human hand, which contains about 17,000 receptors. Because the star-nosed mole is functionally blind, the snout was long suspected to be used to detect electrical activity in prey animals, [6] though little, if any, empirical support has been found for this hypothesis. The development of the star-like appendages suggests precursors with proto-appendages on an ancestor's snout, which became elevated over successive generations. The myelinated fibers innervating the 11 rays were photographed and counted from an enlarged photomontage by Catania and colleagues.

There's just one problem: now that Mole's burrow is full of beautiful, shining stars, none of the other animals can enjoy them . The star-nose is a highly specialized sensory-motor organ shaped by 22 fleshy finger-like appendages, or tendrils, that ring their nostrils and are in constant motion as the mole explores its environment. Catania and colleagues demonstrated that the tactile organ of the star-nosed mole is preferentially innervated by putative light touch fibers. Mechanosensory organs of moles, shrew-moles, and desmans: a survey of the family Talpidae with comments on the function and evolution of Eimer's organ".