Naked Mole-rats
Typical individuals are 8–10 cm long and weigh 30–35 g. Queens are larger and may weigh over 50 g, the largest reaching 80 g. They are well-adapted for their underground existence. Their eyes are just narrow slits, and consequently their eyesight is poor. However, they are highly adapted to moving underground, and can move backwards as fast as they move forwards. Their large, protruding teeth are used to dig. Their lips are sealed just behind their teeth while digging to avoid filling their mouth with soil. Their legs are thin and short. They have little hair (hence the common name) and wrinkled pink or yellowish skin.
Clusters of 20 to 300 animals live together in complex systems of burrows in arid African deserts. They have a complex social structure in which only one female (the queen) and one to three males reproduce, while the rest of the members of the colony function as workers. Like bees (and unlike many ants), the workers are divided along a continuum of different worker-caste behaviors instead of discrete groups[1]. Some function primarily as tunnelers, expanding the large network of tunnels within the burrow system, and some primarily as soldiers, designed to protect the group from outside predators.