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For animals that burrow by compressing soil, the work required increases exponentially with body diameter. In amphisbaenians, an ancient group of burrowing lizard-like squamates, specializations include the pennation of the longissimus dorsi, the main muscle associated with burrowing, to increase muscle cross-sectional area.
Most small xerocoles live in burrows to avoid the desert heat. [29] The burrows act as microenvironments: when they are deeper than 50–60 cm (20–24 in) below the surface, they maintain humidity and temperatures between 30 and 32 °C (86 and 90 °F), regardless of external weather. [13] [30] Some animals seal their burrows to keep them moist.
The round-tailed ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus tereticaudus), known as "Ardillón cola redonda" in Spanish, live in the desert of the Southwestern United States and Northwestern Mexico. They are called "ground squirrels" because they burrow in loose soil, often under mesquite trees and creosote bushes.
In Jordan, a sand cat was sighted for the first time in 1997 during a survey in a desert area in the eastern part of the country. [48] In Syria, sand cats were sighted and photographed by a camera-trap in a protected area near Palmyra in 2000 and 2001. [49] In western Iraq, sand cats inhabit desert areas in the Najaf, Muthanna and Al Anbar ...
This animal has a body length (including the head) of between 4 and 26 cm (1.6 to 10 in.), with an additional 7 – 30 cm (2.75 to 12 in.) of tail, which is always longer than the full body. Jerboa dental records reveal a slow increase in crown heights and that corresponds to a more open and dryer ecosystem.
Desert tortoises spend most of their lives in burrows, rock shelters, and pallets to regulate body temperature and reduce water loss. Burrows are tunnels dug into soil by desert tortoises or other animals, rock shelters are spaces protected by rocks and/or boulders, and pallets are depressions in the soil.
A burrow is a hole or tunnel excavated into the ground by an animal to construct a space suitable for habitation or temporary refuge, or as a byproduct of locomotion. Burrows provide a form of shelter against predation and exposure to the elements, and can be found in nearly every biome and among various biological interactions .
Aestivation has been put forward as the most likely explanation why this therapsid cynodont Thrinaxodon liorhinus shared its burrow with a temnospondyl amphibian, Broomistega putterilli. [11] Non-mammalian animals that aestivate include North American desert tortoises, crocodiles, and salamanders.