Many animals live underground for protection from predators and extreme temperatures. Some animals like moles and earthworms spend their entire lives underground, while others like prairie dogs spend time both underground and above ground. Fossorial refers to animals adapted for burrowing or living underground, such as aardvarks, armadillos, and moles. The document then provides examples of specific fossorial animals and describes characteristics of each.

1. Joanna Sue Go Leong
Wu Jia Hong
Joan Chu

2.  Some animals live underground for all or
much of the time. Living underground has
many advantages, including protection from
some predators, from extreme temperatures
(both hot and cold), and from overly dry
climates. Many animals also hunt for food
underground, like tubers, roots, other plant
material, worms, grubs, insects, insect eggs
and larvae.

3.  Some animals, like moles and earthworms spend
their entire lives underground. Others, like the
prairie dog, spend some time below ground and
some time above ground. Some animals spend a
portion of their life cycle underground (for
example, some insect larvae).
 Fossorial means relating to burrowing or living
underground. Fossorial animals are adapted to
living underground. Aardvarks, armadillos, and
moles are fossorial animals

4. AARDVARKS are large ARMADILLO is a small,
mammals that eat burrowing, armored
ants. mammal.

5.  BILBY NAKED MOLE-RAT
 is a small marsupial with Small, almost hairless rodents wh
long ears live in underground colonies
in Africa

6.  DESERT TORTOISE PUPFISH
A tortoise from A small fish from desert waters of
southwestern North America. This
southwestern North
fish burrows into mud and
America. It spends most
becomes dormant during cold
of its life underground. weather.

7.  TARANTULA MOLE
A tarantula is a large, Moles are almost-
hairy spider. Some blind, burrowing mammals.
tarantulas live in
underground burrows.

8.  CHIPMUNKS ARE rodents that
live in North America and Asia.
Many chipmunks dig extensive
networks of burrows

9.  SAND DOLLARS
are echinoderms, disk-shaped
 spiny-skinned sea bed animals that have 5-part radial
symmetry. They partly bury themselves under the sand,
with an edge poking up out of the sand