golden mole
- noun
- South African
:
topo dorado
- The golden mole is a small mammal that spends most of its life burrowing underground in southern Africa.
Examples
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The marsupial moles look like placental golden moles.
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Furthermore, marsupial moles looking like golden moles and thylacines looking like dogs are only the two best examples of marsupials resembling placentals.
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These are ones that dig and there you see a mole and the golden mole and they have the same sort of convergent morphology.
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Fossorial means ones that are digging in the underground, and you see a golden mole down there and you see some kind of mole up there.
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With its shiny coat, the golden mole blends perfectly with the sandy soil of its natural habitat.
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As a fascinating example of convergent evolution, the golden mole resembles other burrowing animals, despite being unique to its environment.
Synonyms
A small mammal that lives underground like a golden mole from southern Africa
A group of small burrowing mammals like golden moles in southern Africa
Small mammals from southern Africa that dig and eat insects, called golden moles
A family of small, burrowing mammals from southern Africa called golden moles that eat insects
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective+noun composition: 'golden' describes the color/appearance and 'mole' names the burrowing mammal, so the meaning (a mole with golden/iridescent fur) is directly derivable from the parts. This follows a common descriptive pattern cross-linguistically, so an average B1 learner who knows both words would understand the MWE.
Etymology
Golden mole got its name because it has shiny, golden-looking fur and it lives like a mole under the ground. People used golden for the shining fur and mole for its digging life. So the name refers to a small, 'burrowing' animal with iridescent, golden fur.
