Family values: group dynamics and social control of reproduction in African mole-rats

To exploit ecological niches where constraints have favoured selection for group living and cooperation, both vertebrates and invertebrates have evolv ed elaborate social systems. in mammals, numerous divergent taxa have conve rged at similar solutions to these ecological challenges (such as food dist ribution and predator avoidance), culminating in the social insect-like beh aviour of the naked mole-rat. Characteristically, breeding is partitioned u nequally in such groups, resulting in a 'reproductive skew: New research li nking studies of physiology, behaviour end molecular ecology in African mol e-rats is helping us to elucidate why different proximate mechanisms that c ontrol groups of cooperative breeders might have evolved.