fossorial

English

Fossorial foreleg of Mole cricket

Skeleton of European mole, showing fossorial adaptations of forelegs

Etymology

From Latin fossōrius (“adapted for digging or delving”), from fodiō (“dig”).

Adjective

fossorial (comparative more fossorial, superlative most fossorial)

1. (zoology) Of, pertaining to, or adapted for digging or burrowing.
   • 2006, Kenneth D. Rose, The Beginning of the Age of Mammals, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN:

     The most specialized fossorial mammals (moles, marsupial mole) are subterranean, seeking food and shelter underground and rarely coming to the surface.

Related terms

• fossorialism
• fossorious
• semifossorial

Translations

of, pertaining to, or adapted for digging or burrowing

• Bulgarian: риещ (bg) (riešt), ровещ (bg) (rovešt)
• French: fouisseur (fr) m, fouisseuse (fr) f

See also

• ambulatorial
• cursorial
• gressorial
• natatorial
• raptorial
• saltatorial
• scansorial

Noun

fossorial (plural fossorials)

1. (zoology) Any digging animal (such as a mole)

Translations

digging animal

• French: fouisseur (fr) m

Anagrams

• isosafrol