Naked mole-rats express many unusual traits for such a small rodent. Their morphology, social behaviour, physiology, and ageing have been well studied over the past half-century. Many early findings and speculations about this subterranean species persist in the literature, although some have been repeatedly questioned or refuted. While the popularity of this species as a natural-history curiosity, and oversimplified story-telling in science journalism, might have fuelled the perpetuation of such misconceptions, an accurate understanding of their biology is especially important for this new biomedical model organism. We review 28 of these persistent myths about naked mole-rat sensory abilities, ecophysiology, social behaviour, development and ageing, and where possible we explain how these misunderstandings came about.

Belozersky Institute of Physico Chemical Biology Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow 119991 Russia

Biology Department Washington University One Brookings Drive St Louis MO 63130 U S A

Biosciences Institute Edwardson building Campus for Ageing and Vitality Newcastle University Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 5PL U K

Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin Berlin Institute of Health Center for Regenerative Therapies Berlin 13353 Germany

Computational Biology Group Leibniz Institute on Aging Fritz Lipmann Institute Jena 07745 Germany

Department of Game Management and Wildlife Biology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Praha 16500 Czech Republic

Department of General Zoology Faculty of Biology University of Duisburg Essen Universitätsstr Essen 45147 Germany

Department of Molecular Toxicology German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam Rehbrücke Nuthetal 14558 Germany

Department of Reproduction Management Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin 10315 Germany

Division Signal Transduction Institute for Genome Biology Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology FBN Dummerstorf Wilhelm Stahl Allee 2 Dummerstorf 18196 Germany

Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology Russian Academy of Sciences Vavilova str 32 Moscow 119991 Russia

Faculty of Biology Lomonosov Moscow State University Moscow 119991 Russia

Faculty of Science University of South Bohemia České Budějovice 37005 Czech Republic

German Center for Diabetes Research München Neuherberg 85764 Germany

German Rheumatism Research Centre Berlin Berlin 10117 Germany

Institute for Genome Biology Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology Dummerstorf 18196 Germany

Institute of Physiology Department of General Zoology University of Duisburg Essen Germany

Molecular Physiology Research Unit NARILIS University of Namur Namur 5000 Belgium

University Hospital Essen Hufelandstr Essen 45141 Germany

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Mammalian maxilloturbinal evolution does not reflect thermal biology