The Company of Biologists

Table 1

Net cost of transport by burrowing and metabolic rate measurements for a selection of mammalian fossorial and semifossorial species

	Mass (g)			NCOT_b			MR (ml O₂ min⁻¹)
	Burrowing	Basal	(kJ m⁻¹)	(J g^−0.67 m⁻¹)	Burrowing	Basal	Reference
Heterocephalus glaber	31.5	32.0	2.3	230	1.76	0.34	1, 2, 3
Notomys alexis^{^*}	33.0	33.0	7.1	684	3.70	0.67	This study
Georychus capensis	113.0	195.0	1.8	76	6.42	1.93	4, 5
Thomomys bottae	150.0	143.0	6.4	224	10.3	2.00	6
Cryptomys damarensis	152.1	138.0	2.0	68	7.68	1.31	3, 7, 8, 9
Octoaon degus^{^*}	203.0	193.0			22.6	2.84	10, 11, 12
Thomomys talpoides	300.0	106.8			19.6	2.37	13, 14, 15

	Mass (g)			NCOT_b			MR (ml O₂ min⁻¹)
	Burrowing	Basal	(kJ m⁻¹)	(J g^−0.67 m⁻¹)	Burrowing	Basal	Reference
Heterocephalus glaber	31.5	32.0	2.3	230	1.76	0.34	1, 2, 3
Notomys alexis^{^*}	33.0	33.0	7.1	684	3.70	0.67	This study
Georychus capensis	113.0	195.0	1.8	76	6.42	1.93	4, 5
Thomomys bottae	150.0	143.0	6.4	224	10.3	2.00	6
Cryptomys damarensis	152.1	138.0	2.0	68	7.68	1.31	3, 7, 8, 9
Octoaon degus^{^*}	203.0	193.0			22.6	2.84	10, 11, 12
Thomomys talpoides	300.0	106.8			19.6	2.37	13, 14, 15

NCOT_b, net cost of transport by burrowing; MR, metabolic rate.

All digging measurements were obtained in damp sand or sandy loam. NCOT_b data are presented as whole animal measurements (J m⁻¹) and normalised to burrow cross-sectional area(∞M_b^2/3)(Vleck, 1979).

References: 1 (McNab,1966); 2 (Withers and Jarvis,1980); 3 (Lovegrove,1989); 4 (Du Toit et al.,1985); 5 (Lovegrove,1987); 6 (Vleck,1979); 7 (Lovegrove,1986); 8 (Lovegrove,1988); 9 (Bennett et al.,1992); 10 (Bozinovic and Novoa,1997); 11 (Ebensperger and Bozinovic, 2000); 12 (Arends and McNab, 2001); 13 (Bradley et al., 1974); 14 (Gettinger,1975); 15 (Andersen and Macmahon, 1981).

Species are semi-fossorial, the remainder are fossorial.

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