The Japanese mountain mole (''Oreoscaptor mizura'') is a species of Old World mole in the family

Talpidae The family Talpidae () includes the moles (some of whom are called shrew moles and desmans) who are small insectivorous mammals of the order Eulipotyphla. Talpids are all digging animals to various degrees: moles are completely subterranean a ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. It is the only member of the

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

''Oreoscaptor''. Its natural habitats are temperate forests and temperate

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

Taxonomy

Although the Japanese mountain mole was formerly classified in the genus ''

Euroscaptor ''Euroscaptor'' is a genus of mammal in the family Talpidae. Members are found in China and South & Southeast Asia. It contains the following species as of October 2021: * Greater Chinese mole (''Euroscaptor grandis'') * Kloss's mole (''Euros ...

'', a study published by the

American Society of Mammalogists The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) was founded in 1919. Its primary purpose is to encourage the study of mammals, and professions studying them. There are over 4,500 members of this society, and they are primarily professional scientists ...

found that they did not truly belong to the genus because of earlier evolutionary divergence from other ''Euroscaptor'' species. In 2016, the species was reclassified into the new genus ''Oreoscaptor.''

Morphology

The taxonomic position of the species was reassessed in 2016 based on its external and skeletal morphologies. It was found that the muzzle of this species showed a unique groove on the ventral side, separating it from the rest of the moles in the family.

References

Endemic mammals of Japan Talpidae Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Mammals described in 1880 Taxa named by Albert Günther Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{talpidae-stub