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Published: June 18, 2015

The Naked Mole-Rat

Naked mole-rats are some of the most fascinating members of the animal kingdom - but just how unique are they? Turns out, they diverged from their nearest relative more than 31 MILLION years ago! Field Museum curator Dr. Bruce Patterson, and Yale postdoctoral researcher Nate Upham have determined they ought to be in their own scientific family. Now, can someone please update their Wikipedia page?

Naked mole-rats are some of the most fascinating members of the animal kingdom - but just how unique are they? Turns out, they diverged from their nearest relative more than 31 MILLION years ago! Field Museum curator Dr. Bruce Patterson, and Yale postdoctoral researcher Nate Upham have determined they ought to be in their own scientific family. Now, can someone please update their Wikipedia page?

Here's the abstract for the paper, Patterson, B. and Upham, N. "A newly recognized family from the Horn of Africa, the Heterocephalidae (Rodentia: Ctenohystrica)." 

Shout-out to Jillian at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo for allowing us to get footage of their colony!

HUGE thank-you to Bruce and Nate for their help with this episode! And, congratulations to Bruce for being the 2015 recipient of the prestigious C. Hart Merriam Award from the American Society of Mammalogists!