1. With forelimbs like clawed shovels, little or no eyesight and a penchant for tunneling, the much-maligned mole is considered a monster by many a gardener. But dig into the details of these fossorial, or burrowing, mammals, and you might envy their superpowers.
2. Take the star-nosed mole. Found throughout the northeastern U.S. and Canada, the semi-aquatic Condylura cristata has 22 symmetrical, tentacle-like appendages that sprout from its snout.
3. The wiggly, fleshy nose-fingers, or rays, have nothing to do with smell. They’re covered with 25,000 sensory receptors called Eimer’s organs that give the star-nosed mole a supersized sense of touch.
4. C. cristata can identify, capture and eat its prey, generally insects and worms, in an average of about 230 milliseconds. That’s roughly three times faster than a human driver’s reaction time to a red light.
5. Move over, cheetahs: This lightning-fast detection-to-ingestion, called handling time, earned the star-nosed ...
