Re: Why do humans live so long?

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:37:32 -0800 (PST),
Strange Creature <strangecreature7@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Two questions:

Is is reasonably well established that
the lifespans of human beings are
longer than those of the great apes,
and that this is due to genetics, and
not the environmental factors of
humans living in human civilization
and not in zoos or in the wild?

If the answer to the first question
is yes, what specific selection
pressures over the course of
several million years have lead to
a longer lifespan among humans
in comparison with the lifespan
of chimpanzees?

A chimpanzee in captivity can live something like sixty years. I know that
the chimp that played Cheeta in the old Tarzan films is in his seventies and
still around. In the wild I think the average age is somewhere in
mid-to-late thirties (I'm going from memory here and too damned lazy to look
it up). That would, so far as I can tell, match not too differently from
the average lifespan of humans in pre-industrial times.

This suggests that average lifespans, at least in primates (and I'm sure
this applies to other animals as well) is heavily dependent on environment,
with genetics and other biological functions setting a sort of upper limit.

--
Aaron Clausen mightymartianca@xxxxxxxxx

fnor

.

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