Anatomy of the European Mole

If we look at the skeleton, the whiteness and hardness of the bones, especially the teeth, draw attention to themselves. This can also be observed in other animals that live underground. It is all the more noteworthy because they live far from the light of the sun in cold and damp air, which would affect other animals with osteomalacia softening of the bones and scurvy. The celebrated Soemmerring suspects the cause of this to be a different, mutually proportional structure of the membranes and viscera, and the different fodder that they consume.

The head appears long and depressed, provided with broad bones of the skull and few prominences, and those that are present are little protruding (1). The ossa frontis frontal bones (2) cover the upper part of the nasal cavities.

1) Tab. I. Fig. 1. 2. 3.
2) Tab. I. Fig. 1. N. 6.