Spalax ehrenbergi
| Middle East blind mole-rat | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Rodentia |
| Family: | Spalacidae |
| Genus: | Spalax |
| Species: | S. ehrenbergi |
| Binomial name | |
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Spalax ehrenbergi (Nehring, 1898) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Nannospalax ehrenbergi |
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Nannospalax ehrenbergi
The Middle East blind mole-rat or Palestine mole-rat (Spalax ehrenbergi) (also known as Nannospalax ehrenbergi) is a species of rodent in the family Spalacidae.
The Middle East blind mole-rat weighs 100–200 grams (3.5–7.1 oz). It has light gray fur and four sharp teeth, two large teeth in the upper jaw and two smaller teeth in the lower jaw. It has a life span of up to 20 years and is notable for its adaptability to severe lack of oxygen. In Israel, the blind mole-rat is a major agricultural pest. It digs long tunnels up to 80 centimeters deep and stores onions and tubers in underground chambers.
Spalax ehrenbergi is found in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, and Turkey. The natural habitat of the mole is Mediterranean-type shrubbish vegetation, and it is threatened by habitat loss.
Recent cytogenetic studies have shown S. ehrenbergi in Israel may actually be a super-species group containing several cryptic species with chromosome numbers 2n=52, 2n=54, 2n=58 and 2n=60. The fact that close to the 'border line' of the niech of each sub-species there is mating between individuals from different sub-species/different 2n chromosome number, and birth of fertile offsprings indicates that at best the speciation process of the sub-species into real species has not been completed.
According to Israeli researchers at Haifa University, the Middle East blind mole-rat is the ultimate lab animal for researching cancer due to its extraordinary resistance to the disease. In their publication [Manov et al., BMC Biology, 2013][4][1] interesting data on Spalax resistance to cancer have been documented:
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