Brains of mole rats from Africa and North America

The total brain size and quantitative brain composition have been analyzed in four bathyergids and two geomyids in comparison with those in two spalacids. These mole rats show encephalic features corresponding to their phyletic descent from the cricetids. Their diversity in brain organization suggests that, in spite of the seeming uniformity of their habitat the world over, they are narrowly adapted, a quantitative-to-qualitative relationship which only detailed eco-ethological information will be able to explain. The special case of the naked mole rat raises once again the problem of distinguishing evolution from specialization and relating brain development to social life.