The Naked Mole-Rat: The Wrinkled Wonder That Defies Aging
The naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber) is a bizarre rodent that lives in underground colonies beneath the Horn of Africa and appears to be immune to cancer and nearly immune to aging. These nearly hairless, buck-toothed mammals can survive without oxygen for up to 18 minutes by switching their metabolism to fructose rather than glucose, like a plant. Living in eusocial colonies similar to bees or ants—the only mammal to do so—naked mole-rats have a queen who suppresses reproduction in other females, and workers can live over 30 years, ten times longer than similar-sized rodents. Their wrinkled pink skin feels no pain from acid or capsaicin, an adaptation to their carbon dioxide-rich burrows.