#mole-rat

Incoming infodump about these funky little guys! 💚💕

Naked mole rats are burrowing rodents residing in eastern Africa. They are eusocial animals, which means they live in a colony system similar to termites and ants, with a queen, workers, and other roles. They are also ectothermic (cold-blooded) and cannot regulate their body temperature well. Huddling with others in their colony in "cuddle puddles" helps them retain body heat!

Naked mole rats are some of the longest-lived rodents ever, and can reach up to 30 years! They also are quite resistant to cancer thanks to their genetics, lack the ability to feel certain types of pain, and can survive without oxygen for up to 18 minutes.

In the wild, naked mole rats feed primarily on roots, tubers, and rhizomes. Often, a colony that finds a large tuber will eat only the inside of it, so that it will regenerate and provide them with a long-lasting food source. In zoos, they are typically fed a varied diet of foods such as fresh leafy greens, carrots, corn, apples, and sweet potatoes!

By the way, I just love how they eat. The way they just sploot on the ground and hold their food with their tiny front paws as they nibble on it... it's just way too cute!! My heart can't take it. 😭💖💕

Oh they're so silly! Thank you for bringing them to my attention!

Submitted for classification by @wingedtyger

"Could you do the naked mole rat?

I'm including a picture I took last night of a whole pile of them sleeping, at the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California

Blesmols, or African mole-rats, are a group of rodents adapted for mole-like burrowing. Closely related to the more famous naked mole-rat, these little mammals have reduced eyes and ears along with incisors that protrude out even when their mouths are closed, allowing them to excavate tunnels primarily using their teeth.

One of the earliest known fossil blesmols is Bathyergoides neotertiarius here, from the early Miocene of Namibia about 20 million years ago. For almost a century this species was known only from teeth and partial skull remains, but recently a partial skeleton was described giving us a better idea of its overall appearance and lifestyle.

Bathyergoides was a fairly large blesmol, around 25cm long (~10"), and was already specialized for tooth-digging with a skull very similar to modern forms. It had powerful muscular forelimbs that would have been used to push back loose soil while burrowing, but unlike its living relatives it also had a long tail and relatively slender hindlimb bones – with anatomy suggesting its legs were used more for stabilizing its posture than for actively digging.

It may have had a less subterranean lifestyle than modern blesmols, digging out extensive burrows but still foraging for food above ground in a similar manner to modern semi-fossorial rodents like giant pouched rats.

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some of the Wastelands animal powered transport...

hayburners belong to @scuttlebuttin

that mole-rat cutie...well their design was in fo3 concept art by Adamowicz but they never ended up in the game..I had to draw one anyway...

Lesser blind mole-rat (Spalax leucodon) mounds