a wide range of stimuli, and a small, high-resolution area that can be focused on objects of importance". The star-shaped nose is a unique organ only found on the star-nosed mole. Living as it does, in complete darkness, the star-nosed mole relies heavily on the mechanical information of its remarkable specialized nose to find and identify their invertebrate prey without using sight (since moles have small eyes and a tiny optic nerve). This organ is often recognized by its high sensitivity and reaction speed. In only 8 milliseconds it can decide whether something is edible—in fact, this is one of the fastest responses to a stimulus in the animal kingdom and is the reason why the star-nosed mole was lately recognized in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s fastest forager. Anatomy and physiology The star-nose is a highly specialized sensory-motor organ shaped by 22 fleshy finger-like appendages, or tendrils, that ring their nostrils and are in constant motion as the mole explores its environment. The star itself is a centimeter across and thus has a diameter slightly smaller than a typical human fingertip. Nevertheless, it is much larger than the nose of other mole species, covering per touch compared to covered by the noses of other mole species. This structure is divided into a high resolution central fovea region (the central 11th pair of rays) and less sensitive peripheral areas. In this way, the star works as a "tactile eye" where the peripheral rays (1–10 on each side) study the surroundings with erratic saccade-like movements and direct the 11th ray to objects of interest, just like the primate’s foveating eye. Regardless of the anatomical position of the star as a distal (protruding or extending) portion of the nose, this is neither an olfactory structure nor an extra hand. The appendages do not contain muscles or bones and are not used to manipulate objects or capture prey. They are controlled by tendons by a complex series of muscles that are attached to the skull in order to perform a role that seems to be purely mechanical. For this purpose, the star also contains a remarkably specialized epidermis covered entirely by 25,000 small raised domes or papillae of approximately in diameter. These domes, known as Eimer’s organs, are the only type of receptor organs found in the star of the star-nosed mole, which proves that the star-like structure has