Moles are small mammals adapted to a subterranean lifestyle. They have cylindrical bodies, velvety fur, very small, inconspicuous eyes and ears, reduced hindlimbs, and short, powerful forelimbs with large paws adapted for digging.
The family Talpidae includes the moles, shrew moles, desmans, and other intermediate forms of small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean animals; shrew moles and shrew-like moles somewhat less so; and desmans, while basically aquatic, excavate dry sleeping chambers; whilst the quite unique star-nosed mole is equally adept in the water and underground. Talpids are found across the Northern Hemisphere and southern Asia, Europe, and North America, although none are found in Ireland nor in the Americas south of northern Mexico.
The least weasel, little weasel, common weasel, or simply weasel is the smallest member of the genus Mustela, family Mustelidae and order Carnivora. It is native to Eurasia, North America and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Malta, Crete, the Azores, and São Tomé. It is classified as least concern by the IUCN, due to its wide distribution and large population throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
The subfamily Talpinae, sometimes called "Old World moles" or "Old World moles and relatives", is one of three subfamilies of the mole family Talpidae, the others being the Scalopinae, or New World moles, and the Uropsilinae, or shrew-like moles.
The shrew moles (Uropsilus) are shrew-like members of the mole family of mammals endemic to the forested, high-alpine region bordering China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. They possess a long snout, a long slender tail, external ears, and small forefeet unspecialized for burrowing. Although they are similar to shrews in size, external appearance, and, presumably, ecological habits, they are nevertheless talpids and considered true moles, as they share a full zygomatic arch with all other moles, while this arch is completely absent in shrews.
The hairy-tailed mole, also known as Brewer's mole, is a medium-sized North American mole. It is the only member of the genus Parascalops. The species epithet breweri refers to Thomas Mayo Brewer, an American naturalist.
The spotted linsang is a linsang, a tree-dwelling carnivorous mammal, native to much of Southeast Asia. It is widely, though usually sparsely, recorded, and listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Elliot's short-tailed shrew is a small, slate grey, short-tailed species of shrew. Its common name comes from Daniel Giraud Elliot, who first described the species in 1899.
Coelurus is a genus of coelurosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period. The name means "hollow tail", referring to its hollow tail vertebrae. Although its name is linked to one of the main divisions of theropods (Coelurosauria), it has historically been poorly understood, and sometimes confused with its better-known contemporary Ornitholestes. Like many dinosaurs studied in the early years of paleontology, it has had a confusing taxonomic history, with several species being named and later transferred to other genera or abandoned. Only one species is currently recognized as valid: the type species, C. fragilis, described by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1879. It is known from one partial skeleton found in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming, United States. It was a small bipedal carnivore with elongate legs.
Podokesaurus is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived in what is now the eastern United States during the Early Jurassic Period. The first fossil was discovered by the geologist Mignon Talbot near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910. The specimen was fragmentary, preserving much of the body, limbs, and tail. In 1911, Talbot described and named the new genus and species Podokesaurus holyokensis based on it. The full name can be translated as "swift-footed lizard of Holyoke". This discovery made Talbot the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur. The holotype fossil was recognized as significant and was studied by other researchers, but was lost when the building it was kept in burned down in 1917; no unequivocal Podokesaurus specimens have since been discovered. It was nominated as state dinosaur of Massachusetts in 2021.
The crab-eating mongoose is a mongoose species ranging from the northeastern Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia to southern China and Taiwan. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
Dendrorhynchoides was a genus of anurognathid pterosaur containing only the holotype species D. curvidentatus that is known from the Middle Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of Qinglong, northern Hebei Province, China.
Euroscaptor is a genus of mammal in the family Talpidae. Members are found in China, Japan and other countries of South and Southeast Asia. It contains the following species as of October 2018:
The Japanese mountain mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to Japan. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and temperate grassland. Although the Japanese mountain mole is currently classified in the genus Euroscaptor, a study published by the American Society of Mammalogists suggests that they do not truly belong to this genus because of earlier evolutionary divergence from other Euroscaptor species.
The Tonkin snub-nosed monkey or Dollman's snub-nosed monkey is a slender-bodied arboreal Old World monkey, endemic to northern Vietnam. It has black and white fur, a pink nose and lips, and blue patches around the eyes. It is found at elevations from 200 to 1,200 m on fragmentary patches of forest on craggy limestone areas. First described in 1912, the monkey was rediscovered in 1990 but is exceedingly rare. In 2008, fewer than 250 individuals were thought to exist, and the species was the subject of intense conservation effort. The main threats faced by these monkeys are habitat loss and hunting, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the species as "critically endangered".
Brachiosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in North America during the Late Jurassic, about 154–153 million years ago. It was first described by American paleontologist Elmer S. Riggs in 1903 from fossils found in the Colorado River valley in western Colorado, United States. Riggs named the dinosaur Brachiosaurus altithorax; the generic name is Greek for "arm lizard", in reference to its proportionately long arms, and the specific name means "deep chest". Brachiosaurus is estimated to have been between 18 and 21 meters long; weight estimates range from 28.3 to 58 metric tons. It had a disproportionately long neck, small skull, and large overall size, all of which are typical for sauropods. Atypically, Brachiosaurus had longer forelimbs than hindlimbs, which resulted in a steeply inclined trunk, and a proportionally shorter tail.
Crocidura phanluongi is a species of shrew in the genus Crocidura from southern Vietnam and nearby Cambodia. It is a somewhat small, gray shrew with an ecologically diverse distribution.
The Annamit myotis is a species of mouse-eared bat in the family Vespertilionidae, described in 2001, and indigenous to the Minh Hóa Districton the northern coast of Vietnam. Following its description, investigators succeeded in locating M. annamiticus only in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, and the data regarding the distribution, population, and range of the species is otherwise inadequate to determine its conservation requirements. However it is protected by Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park.
The long-tailed shrew or rock shrew is a small North American shrew found in Atlantic Canada and the Northeastern United States.
