The genus Spalax contains the blind, fossorial, or subterranean mole-rats, which are one of several types of rodents that are called mole-rats. The hystricognath mole-rats of the family Bathyergidae are completely unrelated, but some other forms are also in the family Spalacidae. Zokors (subfamily Myospalacinae) and root rats and bamboo rats (subfamily Rhizomyinae) are spalacids sometimes referred to as mole-rats.