Marsupial mole

I've been listening to some of Rick and Kristen's radio shows online. Apparently they have been putting their Sunday WEFT shows up in a blog. Pretty much all goth and deathrock.

Art

Goal for the week 13.5 hours

Today 

work on the sphinx

Animal 

The southern marsupial mole (Notoryctes typhlops) is a very strange marsupial from southwest Australia. It is well adapted to swimming through the sand it has no external eyes or ears (they do have ear openings) and it's pouch faces backward to keep sand out of it. It is thought to eat mostly insects, lizards and seeds but very little is known about it's diet or behavior. It is only recently that that scientists were sure it was a marsupial rather then the link between marsupials and monotremes. It shares different characteristics with many of the living groups of marsupials making it difficult to place. Based on genetic evidence they have worked out that marsupial moles split off of  the main group of marsupials about 50 million years ago and have been evolving on a separate branch into something that very much resembles a golden mole. They are difficult to study as their tunnels collapse on themselves after they pass and they do very poorly in captivity. In captivity they spend a lot more time on the surface and tend to faint for hours at a time they tend not to survive more then a month in captive conditions. Some of the the Aborigines call them itjaritjari and they are associated to some extent with the creation of Uluru/Ayers Rock. They were also regarded with sympathy for their helplessness and only eaten durning very hard times.