A study examines how sex influences the lifespan and aging rate of mammals. Women typically live longer than men, but determining whether this phenomenon also occurs in other species is challenging. Jean-François Lemaître and colleagues collected demographic data to compile and reconstruct age-specific mortality estimates for 134 populations of 101 species of mammals. Juvenile mortality was not included in the analysis, and the onset of adulthood for each species was defined as the earliest age at which a female can reproduce. Whereas the lifespan of females is on average 7.8% longer than that of males in humans, wild female mammals had, on average, an 18.6% longer lifespan than their male counterparts. Wild female mammals had longer lifespans compared with wild male mammals in 60% of the analyzed populations. However, the authors did not did find significant sex-dependent differences in aging rates. The results suggest that local environmental conditions may influence sex differences in mortality patterns. Further, longer adult lifespans in wild female mammals compared with wild male mammals may result from lower mortality at all ages rather than a lower rate of aging, according to the authors.
Article #19-11999: "Sex differences in adult lifespan and aging rates of mortality across wild mammals," by Jean-François Lemaître et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Jean-François Lemaître, University of Lyon 1, FRANCE; tel: 33-0-4-72-44-80-18; email: jean-francois.lemaitre@univ-lyon1.fr >
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences