February 7, 2005
1 min read
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The star-nosed mole might look ungainly, but it can apparently forage at record speeds. Writing in the current issue of Nature, Kenneth C.
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The star-nosed mole might look ungainly, but it can apparently forage at record speeds. Writing in the current issue of Nature, Kenneth C. Catania of Vanderbilt University reports that the nearly blind, burrowing creature uses its stellar appendages to find small prey at 14 times the rate that its close relative, the eastern mole, achieves. Taking just eight milliseconds to identify an object as edible, the star-nosed mole may be processing touch information at or near the speed limit set by the nervous system.
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