Dec 3, 2023 04:20 AM
https://www.sciencealert.com/dinosaurs-m...-years-old
INTRO: There's a marked difference between how quickly mammals (including ourselves) age and how quickly many species of reptiles and amphibians do.
This discrepancy, one scientist proposes, could be due to the dominance of dinosaurs millions of years ago, during a critical period of mammalian history.
Microbiologist João Pedro de Magalhães from the University of Birmingham in the UK describes his "longevity bottleneck" hypothesis in a newly published paper.
Here's the thinking: when dinosaurs ruled Earth, it was necessary for the much smaller mammals to be able to reproduce quickly in order to survive, which means the genes for longer lifespans may have been discarded as evolution progressed.
"Some of the earliest mammals were forced to live towards the bottom of the food chain, and have likely spent 100 million years during the age of the dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid reproduction," says de Magalhães.
"That long period of evolutionary pressure has, I propose, an impact on the way that we humans age." (MORE - details)
INTRO: There's a marked difference between how quickly mammals (including ourselves) age and how quickly many species of reptiles and amphibians do.
This discrepancy, one scientist proposes, could be due to the dominance of dinosaurs millions of years ago, during a critical period of mammalian history.
Microbiologist João Pedro de Magalhães from the University of Birmingham in the UK describes his "longevity bottleneck" hypothesis in a newly published paper.
Here's the thinking: when dinosaurs ruled Earth, it was necessary for the much smaller mammals to be able to reproduce quickly in order to survive, which means the genes for longer lifespans may have been discarded as evolution progressed.
"Some of the earliest mammals were forced to live towards the bottom of the food chain, and have likely spent 100 million years during the age of the dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid reproduction," says de Magalhães.
"That long period of evolutionary pressure has, I propose, an impact on the way that we humans age." (MORE - details)