Germ cell nests in adult ovaries and an unusually large ovarian reserve in the naked mole-rat

The naked mole-rat (NMR, Heterocephalus glaber ) is renowned for its eusociality and exceptionally long lifespan (> 30 y) relative to its small body size (35–40 g). A NMR phenomenon that has received far less attention is that females show no decline in fertility or fecundity into their third decade of life. The age of onset of reproductive decline in many mammalian species is closely associated with the number of germ cells remaining at the...