Blind mice
| Blind mice | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Spalacinae | ||||||||||||
| JE Gray , 1821 |
The blind mice (Spalacinae) are a subfamily of the mouse species . They are rodents that live underground and are perfectly adapted to life underground.
Skin has grown over the eyes, making them completely inoperable. The animals have neither auricles nor a tail. The body is cylindrical, head and body merge almost seamlessly. The feet are small. There are brown-yellow tactile bristles on the sides of the head. Broad incisors protrude from the wide, horny snout, even when the mouth is closed. The blind mice use these teeth to dig. The head-torso length is between 15 and 30 centimeters.
Blind mice spend their entire life underground in a branching system of ducts. They usually have a purely vegetarian diet, sometimes they pull whole plants into the ground by their roots.
The distribution area includes the eastern Mediterranean and the area around the Black Sea . Blind mice inhabit mainly steppe-like habitats here .
The blind mice are usually divided into the following two genera with a total of eight species:
- Eastern blind mice ( Spalax ), including the eastern blind mouse ( Spalax microphthalmus )
- Western blind mice ( Nannospalax ), including the western blind vole ( N. leucodon )
Other systematics have differentiated up to six genera and, depending on the doctrine, three to fourteen species. According to recent studies by Savic and Nevo, there are considerable chromosomal differences even between morphologically seemingly identical animals from different populations. An analysis of the chromosomes of several blind mouse populations revealed a probable species number of over thirty. However, Savic and Nevo also name the eight species in two genera, since only a comprehensive phylogenetic analysis can provide information about the actual classification.
research
American researchers have discovered a peculiarity in the immune system of blind mice. Blind mice can not cancer diagnosed because they initiate a collective cell death at a certain stage of any cancer cells destroyed in no time. The cause of this phenomenon is attributed to the hormone IFN-beta, which belongs to the group of interferons .
literature
- Bernhard Grzimek : Grzimeks animal life. Encyclopedia of the Animal Kingdom. Volume 11: Mammals. Part 2. Weltbild Verlag, Augsburg 2000, ISBN 3-8289-1603-1 .
- Ido R. Savic, Eviatar Nevo: The Spalacidae: evolutionary history, speciation and population biology. In: Progress in Clinical and Biological Research. No. 335, 1990, ISSN 0361-7742 , pp. 129-153.
credentials
- ↑ Thomas Wagner-Nagy: Researchers find anti-cancer hormone in blind mice. Spiegel.de, November 7, 2012
