This burrow dwelling rodent is the stuff of nightmares. The thing is, it lives underground, so it hasnt evolved to be pretty not even to members of its own species. Not equipped with the usual fur we consider characteristic of mammals, the naked mole rat is, well, naked just a few spindly hairs and whiskers for sensing its way around the burrows. Its yellow or pink skin is wrinkled around its body; its eyes are screwed up and small, with little sight as a result. Their big buck teeth stick forward, designed for digging, and can never be hidden away within their mouths but why would they need to? It gets weirder. The mole rat cant sense pain in its skin, allowing it to successfully survive in tight, exfoliating or acidic burrows. Along with the Damaraland mole rat, they are also the only known eusocial mammals. This structure is similar to that found in ants, termites and some bees and wasps. It occurs when only one female is capable of reproduction, along with the help of one to three males. The rest of the members of the group are sterile workers, maintaining the burrow, gathering food and defending the group from intruders. The group functions as a unit, with everyone benefitting from the survival of closely related genes, rather than their own specific naked rat babies. So it may be ugly, but the naked mole rat is also pretty cool, and was even named Vertebrate of the Year 2013 by the leading scientific journal Science. This was thanks to its error free proteins and high production of a sugary substance called HMW-HA, the factors that make it resistant to cancer which has never been observed in the long-lived rodent. Strange things happen underground.
