Rare and rare animal Echidna 10

Echidna, vertebrates, mammals, monoforaree, echididae. It resembles a hedgehog in appearance, has a very short tail and a body length of about 40 to 50 cm. Some of the body hair becomes hard spines, and there are fine hairs between the spines and on the ventral surface.

The tip of the snout is short and straight, with a sheath on the outside. It has no teeth, and its tongue is slender like a thread, with mucus on it, and can stick out of the mouth to catch food. The legs are short, with 5 claws on each of the front and rear limbs, which are long and sharp, suitable for digging.

It resembles a mole, is nocturnal, burrowing, and feeds on termites, ants, and other insects. Oviparous, usually laying only 1 egg at a time. During the reproductive period, the ventral surface of the female animal ** folds into a sac, that is, a temporary nursery bag.

The eggs hatch in the bag for about 7-10 days. The breast area is located inside the pouch. There is hibernation.

It is found only in Australia and New Guinea.

The mole is a mammal.

Mole, a mammal. The body is short and fat, more than 10 cm long, the hair is dark brown, and the mouth is pointed. The forelimbs are well developed, the soles of the feet are turned outward, and the claws are sharp, suitable for digging; The hind limbs are small.

The eyes are small and hidden in the hair. During the day, they live in burrows in the earth, and at night they come out to hunt insects and also eat the roots of crops. The word mole also means "spy" in some countries.

Shandong calls the mole as the ground skin, and the Heze area calls the anti-ear melon seed. In Minxian County, Tongwei and Huining in Gansu Province, it is commonly known as "clams".

Physical features

The head is pointed, the snout is long, the limbs are short, the body is short and fat, more than 10 centimeters long, and the appearance is like a mouse. The pinna is degenerate, and the eyes are small, mostly covered by fine fur. The tail is thin and short. The forelimbs have 5 claws, which are powerful and the palms are turned out, which is the organ of digging the soil.

Sensitive sense of smell

American neuroscientists have discovered that the mole has an unusual sense of smell, which can recognize different food smells in three-dimensional spatial directions, and is a mammal with a three-dimensional sense of smell.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Communications, the three-dimensional sense of smell means that the mole can smell a different smell in each nostril, and the brain can also recognize the difference in smell. This study is the first to confirm that the mole is the first mammal to have a three-dimensional sense of smell.

Kenneth Catania, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University in the United States, said that I thought the nostrils of moles were too close to each other to effectively detect the gradation of smells. The fact that moles use their sense of smell to determine the exact orientation of their food suggests that other mammals, such as dogs and pigs, also rely heavily on their sense of smell.

In the experiment, Catania placed some food in a 180-degree arc around the exit of the mole's hole, and placed earthworms, which the mole likes to eat, as food, in different positions. He and his colleagues were able to observe the olfactory characteristics of moles accompanied by changes in air pressure at a time.

"The mole found the right place for food in less than five seconds, and the accuracy was very high," he says. They have a super-sensitive sense of smell.

When the mole's left nostril is plugged, it turns to the right to detect food**, and when the mole's right nostril is blocked, it turns to the left to detect food**, and eventually it can still find food, but it takes a little longer.

After a series of experiments, Catania confirmed his previous suspicion that moles do have a sense of smell and space.