Analysis of ageing and longevity in African mole-rats – digging deeper than before (Rodentia: Bathyergidae)

Abstract

African mole-rats (Bathyergidae) have intrigued gerontologists since extreme longevity and intraspecific divergence in ageing rates were demonstrated in some of their representatives. Although many ageing-related papers on African mole-rat species have been published in the last 20 years, a comprehensive overview of lifespan distributions, longevity metrics, and annual mortality rates in different mole-rat species (including solitary ones) is still lacking. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by (re)analyzing published and hitherto unpublished longitudinal data of five African mole-rat species with different social organizations. We present strong indications that solitary mole-rats age faster than social species, and that the poorly studied Mashona mole-rat Fukomys darlingi exhibits some ageing characteristics not previously reported in other social mole-rats. Our study also provides the first overview of shape metrics of longevity for African mole-rat species intended to serve as a starting point for future updates.