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Review
. 2021 Apr;96(2):376-393.
doi: 10.1111/brv.12660. Epub 2020 Oct 30.

Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

Stan Braude  1 , Susanne Holtze  2 , Sabine Begall  3 , Julia Brenmoehl  4 , Hynek Burda  5 , Philip Dammann  3   6 , Delphine Del Marmol  7 , Ekaterina Gorshkova  8   9 , Yoshiyuki Henning  6   10 , Andreas Hoeflich  11 , Annika Höhn  12   13 , Tobias Jung  12 , Dania Hamo  14   15 , Arne Sahm  16 , Yury Shebzukhov  8   14 , Radim Šumbera  17 , Satomi Miwa  18 , Mikhail Y Vyssokikh  19 , Thomas von Zglinicki  18 , Olga Averina  19 , Thomas B Hildebrandt  2
Affiliations
Review

Surprisingly long survival of premature conclusions about naked mole-rat biology

Stan Braude et al. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.

Keywords: Bathyergidae; ageing; cancer; naked mole-rat; physiology; sensory biology; social behaviour; sociality; subterranean life; thermoregulation.

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References

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