Some cold-blooded animals have a longer lifespan than their counterparts, but the hypotheses that explain this are contradictory.
Ancient cultures and people have always been interested in giving eternal life to the one who drinks the “immortal elixir” or “the bitterness of God”. Although these cultures did not succeed in finding such a substance to prolong life, some cold-blooded animals were able to live longer than their counterparts of the same size.
Long-lived animals
Thus, the latter fact attracted the interest of scientists, and called into question the reasons for the longevity of cold-blooded animals. Recently, a study involving 114 scientists published the study of the causes of this phenomenon in wildlife in 107 groups representing 77 different species. Study In the June 23 issue of the journal Science.
This is the first study to focus on understanding the phenomenon of longevity and aging in this description. The pace of life.
30 species of vertebrates have survived for more than 100 years, of which only 26 are “exterms”, meaning that these organisms, such as reptiles and waterfowl, depend on environmental heat sources because of their limited internal physiological heat sources. Therefore, scientists were particularly interested in knowing how these creatures avoid death in the long run.
Slowly aging
The results revealed that a number of factors, such as physical or chemical properties that protect organisms such as hard armor, vertebrates, shells or venomous bites, are slowly linked to aging.
And step To report “These various conservation mechanisms reduce animal mortality so that these animals can live longer and be selected for the next generation of animals, which can lead to the development of a slow aging phenotype.”
“It’s interesting to say that some species do not age, but they are more likely to die as they age,” Ring added.
To simplify the matter, if there is a probability of one animal dying for every 100 people by the age of ten, this percentage would be a little older if he was 90 years old. Compared to men, the probability of a woman dying in the United States is between 2,500 and 20 years old, and this percentage will change to one in 24 by the time they reach 80 years of age.
Scientists have observed this slow aging in every group of outdoor heat creatures, including frogs, salamanders, lizards, crocodiles and turtles.
Contradicts previous hypotheses
However, the study did not support the other hypothesis that these animals accept longevity due to their low metabolism and reliance on external heat sources to control their internal body temperature (as cold-blooded animals do).
The study also found that hot-blooded animals may live longer or shorter than warm-blooded animals, so this difference in age and longevity is greater than that of birds and mammals. Therefore, previous studies have shown that wild turtles are slower aging and have a lower metabolic rate associated with longer life.
Ann Pronikowski, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Michigan State and co-author of the study, notes that the modified pinotype of hard shells “may provide protection for animals contributing to the evolution of their way of life, and may have paved the way for this to begin.” Aged. ”Slow and exceptionally long life.
Therefore, it has long been thought that the morphological, physical and chemical properties of animals play an important role in determining longevity, due to their low metabolic rate and their dependence on heat from outside the body. This. This discovery will help to understand the mechanisms of aging in humans in the future.
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