Description
Cape mole rats closely resemble other African mole rats in physical appearance. They have cylindrical bodies with short limbs, and large feet with leathery soles. The head is large and rounded, and the tail is short, with only a few sparse hairs. As with other mole rats, the eyes are very small, and external ears are absent. Adults are around 16 centimetres (6.3 in) in head-body length, with a 2 centimetres (0.79 in) tail, and weigh around 180 grams (6.3 oz). Females have three pairs of teats.
Cape mole rats can most easily be distinguished from other species of mole rat by their fur. This is russet in colour over most of the body, with clearly distinct, silvery-white underparts. The head is darker, sometimes even a charcoal grey shade, with prominent white markings around the ears and eyes, and a smaller amount of white fur on the muzzle. The hair on the feet is also white. Unlike the related Damaraland mole rats, Cape mole rats have no guard hairs, although there are slightly longer stiff hairs around the mouth and feet, and the animals do have stubby whiskers. Lacking guard hairs, the fur is thick and woolly in texture.
Read more about this topic: Cape Mole Rat
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“It is possible—indeed possible even according to the old conception of logic—to give in advance a description of all ‘true’ logical propositions. Hence there can never be surprises in logic.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)