The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis
Abstract
Is it possible to slow the rate of ageing, or do biological constraints limit its plasticity? We test the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis, which posits that the rate of ageing is relatively fixed within species, with a collection of 39 human and nonhuman primate datasets across seven genera. We first recapitulate, in nonhuman primates, the highly regular relationship between life expectancy and lifespan equality seen in humans. We next demonstrate that variation in the rate of ageing within genera is orders of magnitude smaller than variation in pre-adult and age-independent mortality. Finally, we demonstrate that changes in the rate of ageing, but not other mortality parameters, produce striking, species-atypical changes in mortality patterns. Our results support the invariant rate of ageing hypothesis, implying biological constraints on how much the human rate of ageing can be slowed.
Citation
Colchero , F , Aburto , J M , Archie , E A , Boesch , C , Breuer , T , Campos , F A , Collins , A , Conde , D A , Cords , M , Crockford , C , Thompson , M E , Fedigan , L M , Fichtel , C , Groenenberg , M , Hobaiter , C , Kappeler , P M , Lawler , R R , Lewis , R J , Machanda , Z P , Manguette , M L , Muller , M N , Packer , C , Parnell , R J , Perry , S , Pusey , A E , Robbins , M M , Seyfarth , R M , Silk , J B , Staerk , J , Stoinski , T S , Stokes , E J , Strier , K B , Strum , S C , Tung , J , Villavicencio , F , Wittig , R M , Wrangham , R W , Zuberbühler , K , Vaupel , J W & Alberts , S C 2021 , ' The long lives of primates and the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis ' , Nature Communications , vol. 12 , 3666 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-23894-3
Publication
Nature Communications
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-1723Type
Journal article
Description
This work was supported by NIA P01AG031719 to J.W.V. and S.C.A., with additional support provided by the Max Planck Institute of Demographic Research and the Duke University Population Research Institute.Collections
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