The Middle East blind mole rat or Israel mole rat (Spalax ehrenbergi or Nannospalax ehrenbergi) is a species of rodents in the Spalacidae family found in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey. Its natural habitat is Mediterranean-type shrubbish vegetation, and it is threatened by habitat loss.
Recent cytogenetic studies have shown S. ehrenbergi may actually be a species group containing several cryptic species with chromosome numbers 2n=48, 2n=52, 2n=54, 2n=56 and 2n=58.
Famous quotes containing the words middle east, middle, east, blind, mole and/or rat:
“It is not possible to create peace in the Middle East by jeopardizing the peace of the world.”
—Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)
“Wives are young men’s mistresses, companions for middle age, and old men’s nurses.”
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626)
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“But the star-glistered salver of infinity,
The circle, blind crucible of endless space,
Is sluiced by motion,—subjugated never.”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)
“For like a mole I journey in the dark,
A-travelling along the underground”
—John Davidson (1857–1909)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)