A Star-Nosed Mole’s Nose

The star-nosed mole is easily identified by the 11 pairs of pink fleshy
appendages ringing its snout, which is used as a touch organ with more
than 25,000 minute sensory receptors, known as Eimer's organs, with
which this hamster-sized mole feels its way around. With the help of
its Eimer's organs, it may be perfectly poised to detect seismic wave
vibrations. Because the star-nosed mole is functionally blind, the snout
was long suspected to be used to detect electrical activity in prey
animals, though little, if any, empirical support has been found for
this hypothesis.

These moles also possess the ability to smell underwater, accomplished
by exhaling air bubbles onto objects or scent trails and then inhaling the
bubbles to carry scents back through the nose.

Photo by Kenneth Catania, National Geographic, October 2009