The word “mole” is practically synonymous with an underground lifestyle. The little mammals that bear the name are supposed to be near-blind denizens of the world beneath our feet, tunneling through gardens for tasty worms and other morsels. And, fair enough, some moles live this way. But not all. The desman is a snouty mole that swims, some moles forage above the ground but beneath the cover of leaf litter, and the tiny shrew mole Uropsilus doesn’t seem to show any acumen for digging at all. Thanks to some tiny fossils recently found in England, however, it seems that this variety of moles sprung from ancestors that were skilled at scratching into the soil.

Paleontologist Bernard Sigé