#understanding mortality

[darthemed]

Kindergarten Cop 2 (2016)

[mujervacio]

Aging works differently

humans have a pretty straightforward view of aging: they're born, they mature, they gradually become weaker and lose fertility, and eventually, they die. but in nature, aging is far more diverse, new research finds. in fact, some animals are actually less likely to die the older they get — at least up to a point. evolutionary theorists working in the 1950s through 1970s explained the familiar pattern of increasing mortality with age as a trade-off between reproduction and survival. if an organism only has a certain number of resources, it has to decide whether to allocate them to creating offspring (searching for mates, wooing them and mating) or to surviving for another year.

Nn matter how healthy and resource-rich you are, there is always a slight chance that you'll die. you could be hit by a bus, struck by lightning, or end up in the path of a rockslide. for this reason, Jones said, evolution favors those who reproduce early, before anything bad can befall them. thus, genetic mutations that favor early reproduction, even at the expense of an organism's later life, will be preserved.

the diversity of mortality and aging is independent of life span.

"in order to make sense of what we're seeing, theoreticians need to figure out why it is that we're seeing these patterns and make sense of it," he said. it's likely that body size plays a role, he said. organisms that grow with age without stopping at a certain size, like some trees, may be less vulnerable in old age to environmental fluctuations or other threats. fish that outgrow all of their predators are likely to make it to a ripe old age, for example.  

Jones and his colleagues plan to study wider populations of species and to get a sense of the reasons behind the varying life spans. for example, does it matter whether a plant is a tree or a shrub? do certain environments promote longevity?

"there's good evidence that a lot of these plants that live a very long time tend to live in arid regions," he said." aridity might have some kind of effect."

-fragments of an article I found on internet, i thought you would like to know