The creature that conquered an extreme land by becoming one of the oddest mammals on Earth is continuing to surprise the experts. In May 1976, Richard Alexander, a professor from the University of Michigan, gave a lecture on the amazing social systems of colonial insects such as termites, ants and bees. He explained that the most impressive feature of these insects was how the reproduction of an entire species was the duty of a small elite - the 'kings and queens' - and how the other individuals, who were mostly sterile, devoted their lives to the welfare of the colony. He declared that, while no vertebrate had evolved a social system to the same degree, we shouldn't count it out for the future. In theory, he claimed, a mammal living in large colonies, in a harsh environment, could come to be organised like a social insect. Naturally, he was astonished when someone in the audience pointed out that his mythical mammal may already exist.
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