Fossorial

A fossorial (From Latin fossor, digger) organism is one that is adapted to digging and life underground such as the badger, the naked mole-rat, and the mole salamanders Ambystomatidae.

Most bees and many wasps are called "fossorial Hymenoptera", and a great many rodents are considered fossorial although the physical adaptations to living underground are minimal. Nevertheless, mostly from 2000 on, for rodents the term fossorial has been used for species that live in burrows during a considerable part of the day but are surface dwelling during other parts of the day, while for species that live all their life underground (or at least almost all the time) the term subterranean has been applied.

Some organisms are fossorial to aid in temperature regulation, while others use the underground habitat for protection from predators or food storage.^[1]

An animal is said to be subfossorial if it shows limited adaptations to a fossorial lifestyle.

See also

• Arboreal
• Burrow
• Cursorial

References

• "Fossorial - Definition of Fossorial". Amateur Entomologists' Society. Retrieved September 2012. 
• "Fossorial Legs". University of Sydney. Retrieved September 2012.