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 who are 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 of Eurasia and North America, and range as far south as the montane regions of tropical Southeast Asia.
John Kirk Townsend was an American naturalist, ornithologist and collector.
The desman, a snouted and naked-tailed diving insectivore of the tribe Desmanini, belongs to one of two Eurasian species of the mole family, Talpidae.
The coast mole or Pacific mole is a medium-sized North American mole found in forested and open areas with moist soils along the Pacific coast from southwestern British Columbia to northwestern California.
The Townsend's mole is a fossorial mammal in the family Talpidae, and is the largest North American mole. It was named after the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend. The name was selected at the request of Thomas Nuttall as a patronym to honor Townsend's contribution.
The northern broad-footed mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to the United States, where it is found in northern California, Nevada and Oregon at elevations up to 3000 m above sea level.
Hemiauchenia is a genus of laminoid camelids that evolved in North America in the Miocene period about 10 million years ago. This genus diversified and moved to South America in the Late Pliocene approximately 3 to 2 million years ago, as part of the Great American Biotic Interchange, giving rise to modern lamines. The genus became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene.
The Scalopinae, or New World moles, are one of three subfamilies of the family Talpidae, which consists of moles and mole-like animals; the other two subfamilies being the Old World talpids and the Chinese shrew-like moles (Uropsilinae). The Scalopinae are the only Talpidae subfamily to consist entirely of undisputed moles and no mole-like close relatives such as shrew-moles or desmans.
The Scalopini are a tribe of moles belonging to the family Talpidae. They include all the New World moles apart from the strikingly distinctive star-nosed mole. As the similarity of the names implies, they are the standard form of the Scalopinae, the North American or New World moles, and can be found virtually anywhere north of Northern Mexico and south of Northern Canada where environmental factors permit.
Canis lepophagus is an extinct species of canid which was endemic to much of North America during the Early Pliocene. It is notable because its lineage is proposed to have led to both wolves and coyotes.
Veratalpa lugdunensiana is a fossil mammal from the Miocene of France. Known from a single astragalus, the species was assigned to its own genus, Veratalpa, by Florentino Ameghino in 1905. He placed it in Talpidae, the family of the moles, but in 1974, John Howard Hutchison argued that the astragalus was not talpid and more likely came from a rodent. The astragalus is about 4.5 mm long, broad for a talpid, and has the head oriented farther from the axis of the foot than in talpids.
There are at least 9 large terrestrial mammal, 50 small mammal and 14 marine mammal species known to occur in Olympic National Park.
Capromeryx was a genus of dwarf pronghorns (Antilocapridae) that originated in North America during the Pliocene about 5 million years ago. The closest living relative and only surviving member of the family is the North American pronghorn.
The Talysch mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is a small member of the family, which outwardly resembles the Levant mole, but is genetically closer to Père David's mole. It is common on the southwest coast of the Caspian Sea, from southern of Azerbaijan through most of the north of Iran. The habitat includes temperate rainforests and scrub areas. There is little information about the life history of the Talysch mole. It was described in 1945, but had long been considered a subspecies of various other Eurasian moles, and was only recognized as a distinct species in the mid-2010s. No surveys have been carried out to quantify the status of the species.
The Mexican mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is endemic to Baja California in Mexico, where it is restricted to the highlands of the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir mountain range. Its specific epithet references naturalist Alfred Webster Anthony.
The broad-footed mole was a former mole species that has since been split into three distinct species in the genus Scapanus:
The southern broad-footed mole is a species of mammal in the family Talpidae. It is found only in the U.S. state of California and northernmost Baja California in Mexico.
