AnAge entry for Heterocephalus glaber

Classification (HAGRID: 03275)

Taxonomy: Kingdom: Animalia
    Phylum: Chordata
        Class: Mammalia (Taxon entry)
            Order: Rodentia
                Family: Bathyergidae
                    Genus: Heterocephalus
Species: Heterocephalus glaber
Common name: Naked mole-rat
Synonyms: Heterocephalus ansorgei, Heterocephalus dunni, Heterocephalus phillipsi, Heterocephalus progrediens, Heterocephalus scortecci, Heterocephalus stygius

Lifespan, ageing, and relevant traits

Maximum longevity

31 years (captivity)

Source

Rochelle Buffenstein, pers. comm.

Sample size

Large

Data quality

High

Observations

These bizarre underground animals from the Horn of Africa live in cooperative colonies, a protected and thermally buffered environment. Their body temperature is relatively low and they appear to be cold-intolerant. They are one of the longest-lived rodents and are extremely resistant to cancer [0689]. Record longevity belongs to one specimen caught in the wild in 1980 that lived over 30 years in captivity until it died in 2010, making it at least 31 years of age when it died (Rochelle Buffenstein, pers. comm.). In the wild, breeders have been known to live up to 17 years but non-breeders do not commonly live more than 2 or 3 years (Stan Braude, pers. comm.).

Unlike other mammals, they appear to maintain good health for most of their lifespan and do not exhibit the typical age-associated increase in mortality [0756]. Older animals can be less active but very few age-related changes have been described [0981].

Life history traits (averages)

Female sexual maturity: 228 days
Male sexual maturity
Gestation: 70 days
Weaning: 36 days
Litter size: 7 (viviparous)
Litters per year: 3.5
Inter-litter interval: 81 days
Weight at birth: 2 g
Weight at weaning: 11 g
Adult weight: 35 g
Postnatal growth rate: 0.0046 days^-1 (from Gompertz function)
Maximum longevity residual: 368%

Metabolism

Typical body temperature: 305ºK or 32.1ºC or 89.8ºF
Basal metabolic rate: 0.1280 W
Body mass: 35.3 g
Metabolic rate per body mass: 0.003626 W/g

References

[0966] Edrey et al. (2012), Sustained high levels of neuregulin-1 in the longest-lived rodents; a key determinant of rodent longevity, PubMed
[0926] Yu et al. (2011), RNA sequencing reveals differential expression of mitochondrial and oxidation reduction genes in the long-lived naked mole-rat when compared to mice, PubMed
[0894] Kim et al. (2011), Genome sequencing reveals insights into physiology and longevity of the naked mole rat, PubMed
[0925] Edrey et al. (2011), Endocrine function and neurobiology of the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat, PubMed
[0981] Wolf and Austad (2010), Introduction: Lifespans and Pathologies Present at Death in Laboratory Animals
[0867] Seluanov et al. (2009), Hypersensitivity to contact inhibition provides a clue to cancer resistance of naked mole-rat, PubMed
[0913] Perez et al. (2009), Protein stability and resistance to oxidative stress are determinants of longevity in the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat, PubMed
[0978] Jones et al. (2009), PanTHERIA: a species-level database of life history, ecology, and geography of extant and recently extinct mammals
[0756] Buffenstein (2008), Negligible senescence in the longest living rodent, the naked mole-rat: insights from a successfully aging species, PubMed
[0947] Mitchell et al. (2007), Membrane phospholipid composition may contribute to exceptional longevity of the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber): a comparative study using shotgun lipidomics, PubMed
[0783] Csiszar et al. (2007), Vascular aging in the longest-living rodent, the naked mole rat, PubMed
[0776] Seluanov et al. (2007), Telomerase activity coevolves with body mass not lifespan, PubMed
[0786] Andziak and Buffenstein (2006), Disparate patterns of age-related changes in lipid peroxidation in long-lived naked mole-rats and shorter-lived mice, PubMed
[0754] Labinskyy et al. (2006), Comparison of endothelial function, O2-* and H2O2 production, and vascular oxidative stress resistance between the longest-living rodent, the naked mole rat, and mice, PubMed
[0755] Andziak et al. (2006), High oxidative damage levels in the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat, PubMed
[0689] Buffenstein (2005), The naked mole-rat: a new long-living model for human aging research, PubMed
[0603] Andziak et al. (2005), Antioxidants do not explain the disparate longevity between mice and the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat, PubMed
[0715] Lorenzini et al. (2005), Cellular replicative capacity correlates primarily with species body mass not longevity, PubMed
[0481] Austad (2005), Diverse aging rates in metazoans: targets for functional genomics, PubMed
[0036] Savage et al. (2004), The predominance of quarter-power scaling in biology
[0420] White and Seymour (2003), Mammalian basal metabolic rate is proportional to body mass2/3, PubMed
[0005] Buffenstein and Jarvis (2002), The naked mole rat--a new record for the oldest living rodent, PubMed
[0184] O'Connor et al. (2002), Prolonged longevity in naked mole-rats: age-related changes in metabolism, body composition and gastrointestinal function, PubMed
[0434] Ronald Nowak (1999), Walker's Mammals of the World
[0455] Virginia Hayssen et al. (1993), Asdell's Patterns of Mammalian Reproduction: A Compendium of Species-Specific Data
[0050] Paul Sherman et al. (1991), The Biology of the Naked Mole-Rat
[0731] Zullinger et al. (1984), Fitting sigmoid equations to mammalian growth curves

External Resources

Integrated Taxonomic Information System: ITIS 584677
Animal Diversity Web: ADW account
Encyclopaedia of Life: Search EOL
Genome Project: Search NCBI
Entrez: Search all databases or Entrez Taxonomy search
Ageing Literature: Search Google Scholar or Search PubMed or Search Scirus
Images: Google Image search
Internet: Search Google