The Naked Mole-Rat: The Only Living Mammal That Is Essentially Cold-Blooded
IFLScience••science
Key Points:
- Naked mole-rats (Heterocephalus glaber), also known as sand puppies, exhibit unique mammalian traits, including eusocial behavior with a single breeding female and several breeding males, resembling social structures seen in some insect species.
- Unlike most mammals, naked mole-rats are largely ectothermic, with body temperatures that fluctuate with ambient conditions; they thermoregulate behaviorally by huddling and basking in sun-warmed tunnels.
- Despite their cold-blooded-like characteristics, naked mole-rats can initiate non-shivering thermogenesis to raise body temperature but cannot sustain it due to excessive heat loss through their skin.
- Research indicates that their primary thermoregulatory challenge is retaining heat rather than producing it, as
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