The eyes are covered by a membrane of skin and have atrophied lens cells enclosed in a vesicle and a retinal layer.

Its dental formula is 1.0.0.31.0.0.3 [3] The greater blind mole-rat is known from the steppes of Ukraine and from southern Russia between the Dnieper and the Volga rivers.

Its range extends northwards to the Oryol to Kursk railway line and southwards to the North Caucasus.

[1] The greater blind mole-rat is a fossorial species that stays underground except when dispersing to new territories as juveniles, a period of great vulnerability.

[3] It is a herbivore and feeds on the roots of such plants as dandelions, umbellifers, chicory and tree seedlings, approaching them from underneath.