Condylura cristata
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Condylura cristata's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation17 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 292 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI14 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics14 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
A specimen from the collection of the Muséum de Toulouse The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) is a small mole found in moist, low areas in the northern parts of North America. It is the only member of the tribe having a touch organ with more than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer's organs, with which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around. With the help of its Eimer's organs, it may be perfectly poised to detect seismic wave vibrations. The extremely sensitive star-like structure is covered with minute touch receptors known as Eimer's organs. The nose is about 1 cm in diameter with roughly 25,000 Eimer's organs distributed on 22 appendages. Eimer's organs were first described in the European mole in 1871 by German zoologist Theodor Eimer. Other mole species also possess Eimer's organs, though they are not as specialized or numerous as in the star-nosed mole. Because the star-nosed mole is functionally blind, the snout was long suspected to be used to detect electrical activity in prey animals, though little, if any, empirical support has been found for this hypothesis. The nasal star and dentition of this species appear to be primarily adapted to exploit extremely small prey. A report in the journal Nature gives this animal the title of fastest-eating mammal, taking as little as 120 milliseconds (average: 227 ms) to identify and consume individual food items. Its brain decides in approximately 8 ms if prey is edible or not. This speed is at the limit of the speed of neurons. These moles are also able to smell underwater, accomplished by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the bubbles to carry scents back through the nose.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology3
Life cycle & reproduction9
Diet & foraging4
Habitat & environment2
Physiology & chemistry4
Other traits4
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Condylura cristata has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Condylura cristata carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 341×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Condylura cristata. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type2 302 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions24 of 44 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Toronto, CA | 190 |
| Albany, US | 122 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 102 |
| Saint John, CA | 98 |
| Ithaca, US | 56 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 50 |
| Ohio State University - Mammal Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 18 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 15 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 11 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 10 |
| University of Wisconsin, Zoological Museumlocation not on record | 10 |
| München, DE | 9 |
| Fort Hays State University, Sternberg Museumlocation not on record | 8 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 7 |
| Geneva, CH | 7 |
| ASNHClocation not on record | 7 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 7 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 6 |
| NMUlocation not on record | 6 |
| Bonn, DE | 6 |
| Chicago, US | 5 |
| East Lansing, US | 5 |
| Edmonton, CA | 5 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 4 |
| Provo, US | 4 |
| Los Angeles, US | 4 |
| Cambridge, US | 4 |
| Science Museum of Minnesotalocation not on record | 3 |
| Stockholm, SE | 3 |
| Washington, US | 2 |
| Indiana State Universitylocation not on record | 2 |
| University of Wisconsin-Stevens Pointlocation not on record | 2 |
| Cincinnati, US | 2 |
| University of North Carolina at Greensborolocation not on record | 2 |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| CASlocation not on record | 1 |
| San Diego, US | 1 |
| Seattle, US | 1 |
| Abilene Christian University Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| Tempe, US | 1 |
| Tacoma, US | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
| Chicago, US | 1 |
Where the DNA of Condylura cristata was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.