Fossa facts for kids

Fossa At the Valencia Bioparc

Have you ever heard the word fossa? It's a fun word that can mean many different things! Depending on where you are or what you're talking about, it could be a unique animal, a beautiful waterfall, a place on a map, or even a person's last name.

This page will help you explore all the cool meanings of "fossa."

Amazing Animals

• The fossa is a super cool meat-eating mammal that lives only on the island of Madagascar. It looks a bit like a small cougar but is related to the mongoose family.
• Fossa is also the scientific genus name for the Malagasy civet. This animal is a smaller relative of the fossa and also lives in Madagascar.

Places in Nature

• Fossá is a stunning waterfall in the Faroe Islands. It's one of the tallest in the country and cascades down a cliff in two sections.
• Fossa (river) is the name of several different rivers in Iceland.

People Named Fossa

"Fossa" or "Fossas" can also be a last name. Here are some people who have it:

• Bernardino of Fossa (1420–1503), an Italian writer and historian from a long time ago.
• François de Fossa (1775–1849), a French musician who played the classical guitar and wrote music for it.
• José Fossa (1902–1967), a soccer player from Argentina.
• La Fossa, a rap music group from Italy.
• Tony Fossas (born 1957), a professional baseball player from Cuba.

Towns and Villages

You can find places on the map named Fossa:

• Fossa, Abruzzo, a town in the country of Italy.
• Fossa, County Kerry, a village in Ireland.
• Fossá, Faroe Islands, a village in the Faroe Islands that is no longer lived in.
• Fossa Beg and Fossa More are two areas in Ireland called "townlands." A townland is a small, local land division.

Other Cool Meanings

The word "fossa" has a few other interesting uses:

• In science, a fossa is a shallow dent or hollow area, like the ones you can find on bones.
• In astronomy, a fossa is a long, narrow ditch or trench on the surface of a planet or moon.
• In ancient Rome, a "fossa" was a ditch or a moat, which is a deep ditch often filled with water that was dug around a castle for protection.
• Formaggio di fossa is a special type of cheese from Italy. Its name means "pit cheese" because it is left to age in special underground pits!

See also

In Spanish: Fossa para niños