Mole Skeleton

This is a skeleton of a european mole at the Grant Museum. It is a much better photograph then the one I took, and the ones provided in the museum catalogue. It is from here. 

The combination of the distinct evolutionary features of the moles, as this skeleton shows and the fact moles were (and still are) considered a pest and in an abundance, is likely to be the reason that they were used in teaching so much, their abundance in the museum and the moles subsequent residing within the glass jar.

Courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: NON446)

Digital Object – Online sources.

18 Moles in Jar

Available for viewing (and more information on) at: Grant Museum, London.Image copyright held by : UCL Museums/Grant Museum.

This jar contains 18 moles. According the Mark Carnall, the curator of the Grant Museum how they came to be here it is not quite known, although it is thought that they might have been used for teaching and research in zoology and comparative anatomy, which historically included animal dissection.

The Glass Jar of Moles has it’s own twitter account, @GlassJarOfMoles. This is how they are described on twitter: “We many moles proudly reside at @GrantMuseum. A disparate lot, our interests lie in adventure, science, equality, educational disadvantage, history & worms.”

These moles also appear on the Museum of Unthings, providing an interesting, alternative story to this object.

The Grant Museum has an adoption facility. You can not adopt these moles as someone already has, though there are many others you could chose from. Check here if your interested.

Image courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums. (Search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z2754 )

Digital Object – Online sources.

Mole-Rats

Not to be confused with Mallrats. Mole-Rat is a general term for a number of unrelated groups of burrowing rodents, called blesmols.

The Naked Mole-Rat is probably the more unusual looking of the burrowing rodents, they are from the horn of Africa. They are  about 8-10 cm long and can live for up to 30 years, substantially longer then other rodents.

This study suggests due to their long life and unusual resistance to disease, in particular cancer, they would be particularly useful in genome experiments.

It is unclear if this truly is a mole rat, although it has been called so. Image from @JillJ_194 (origin unknown). But it is too good a photo not to include.

It seems our Glass Jar of Moles is not the only one with ther own twitter account. The Naked Mole Rat has one too; @TehNakedMoleRat (Described as: @Eusocialist. Tunneller. Warrior. The Sabre-Toothed Sausage – BBC)

This naked mole-rat came from a zoo. Image from here. Courtesy of Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

For more information on these Zambian mole-rats (and on this image) click here.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z1460 ).

Digital Object – Online sources. (search arkive.org for more variations).

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view ( At Pittsburgh Zoo, among many others).

Mole Feet Amulets

These two mole’s feet were carried in a pocket as an amulet to protect from toothache, collected in England (around 1933). They are part of the Pitt Rivers Museum. For much more details on this object and to see related objects please visit their online catalogue.

Image credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

Digital Object – Online sources.

Physical Object borrowed from non UCL Museum collection. Available to view (Here in the Pitt Rivers Museum Catalogue).

Taxidermy Moles

Title: Taxidermy ‘Moroccan mole dressed in a Fez hat’ and ‘Mr. Moley’.

Date: Oct 20, 2013

Producer: Julie Johnson. Description: Making My Moles (click on image for blog post by maker).

This is derived from the taxidermy then that found at the Grant Museum search Grant Museum Catalogue for an example of a taxidermy mole), although it is created for different purposes. This form of taxidermy has received criticism from some.

Here is an article discussing these attitudes by Matthew Bell from The Independent Online titled: ‘Stuff and nonsense’

Physical Object available to view/buy.

Digital Objects – Online sources (available here).

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums (search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z591 ).

Courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Golden Moles are not moles.

The golden mole is very similar to the European mole, and yet it is, according to Linnaean taxonomy is from a completely different family. There are approx. nine variations of golden mole. For a list here is a helpful wikipage.

Taxidermy specimen. Mounted taxidermy specimen on black wooden plinth. Chrysospalax trevelyanus (Giant golden mole). Identified by: Carnall, Mark (2013-06-20). Image by: UCL Museums. Rights: UCL Museums.

This is just one available to see at the Grant Museum. There are more on display.

This is a clip from ‘The Life of Mammals’ narrated by David Attenborough for BBC. It shows a golden mole hunting and burrowing in the sand. For more information on this series click here.

The programme first shown 2008 on BBC. Uploaded by lifeonearthclips.

Image courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Physical Object available to view at UCL Museums. (search Grant Museum Catalogue: Z592 )

Digital Objects – Online sources.

Physical Object available to view/buy.

Dissecting a mole

This is a Partially dissected marsupial mole from the Grant Museum.

youtube.com/watch?v=7Zc5JgQ1fl8

(Please copy and paste link into search engine to view)

This clip shows a mole being dissected. It was uploaded to YouTube in 2012 by Eric Smith.

Image courtesy of Teaching and Research Collections and UCL Museums.

Digital Objects – Online sources.

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