chrysochlorid

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from translingual Chrysochloridae, equivalent to translingual Chrysochloris + -id.

1. Any member of the family Chrysochloridae, the golden moles.

   “If the highly vestigial eyes of N. typhlops have degenerated over a longer timespan than the less degenerative eyes of chrysochlorids, then eye-specific genes in N. typhlops should be in a greater state of decay than in chrysochlorids and also show evidence for an earlier onset of relaxed selection. In contrast, if the eyes of N. typhlops degenerated rapidly and recently in response to increasingly sandy soil, then there may have been less time for the accumulation of inactivating mutations in notoryctid eye-specific genes than in chrysochlorid eye-specific genes.”