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Article: The monstrous regiment of naked mole rats.
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- October 6, 1990
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1990 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The monstrous regiment of naked mole rats
THERE is nothing alluring about the nakedness of mole rats. With their wrinkled hide, protruding teeth, piggy eyes and stubby whiskers, these burrowing African rodents are startlingly unattractive. Yet zoologists love them, not for their looks, but because of their way of life. Though a colony of naked mole rats may contain 100 mature females, only one will have children. Many insect species live this way, in hives run by queens; but mole rats are the only mammals known to have gone colonial.
Had mole rats been known to him, Darwin would have worried about them, as he worried about life in the ant hill. He ...