Conventional wisdom in longevity studies used to be that the life span of a creature was roughly proportional to its body mass and heart rate—the big, slow elephant outlives the quick, small mouse. New research, however, presents a more complicated picture. Bats and birds, for instance, are small but tend to live longer than many larger creatures. Moreover, when scientists look within particular species, size does not correlate well with life span, although fast growth is often associated with reduced longevity. To some degree, resting metabolic rate does correlate, but for animals total energy expended over a lifetime may be the best indicator of all. Definitive answers in this field can be slow in coming, partly because the studies take a long time to do—a typical Galápagos tortoise, for instance, can outlast a scientist's career. And don't hold your breath for insights into the extreme life span of the bristlecone pine.
See what we're tweeting about
10 Comments
Add Comment"Editor's note: An interactive version of this graphic appears here."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo it doesn't.
I agree, unless it's life span was too short for me to notice!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Why Do Birds Live Longer Than Turtles?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo are you suggesting the Bristlecone pine or the Rougheye rockfish are actually birds?
Why birds live longer than turtles:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBirds avoid predators by flying. Therefore their maximal possible expected lifespan is longer than a similar land-based organism's. Given this freedom, natural selective pressure then acts to increase the number of offspring by evolving long lived organisms.
This is also why bats live longer than similarly sized rodents with similar metabolisms, heart rates, and energy expenditures.
Now I knew about the Axolotl and naked mole rats, but why aren't we doing more to study the Rougheye rockfish, and the Galapagos tortoise?!
And what is with the title having nothing to do with the article? Y'all never addressed the question!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere is no turtle in the graphic or the text. The closest relative is the much longer lived tortoise!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think this article either wasn't proof read or wasn't checked close enough.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTitle should have read,
"Why do turtles live longer than birds?"
They messed up,period.
Curious to see a citation for this finding beyond "new research." Was hoping the interactive version would clarify, but it is 404, as noted by others. What's up, @SciAm @fredguterl?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs far as theory is concern by considering heratbeat,breathing rate,body temperature humane can survive 354 years.As per Guin.world record elephant survive in captivity 78 years,Tortoise of Kolkata zoo died in 2005 or 2007 in 246 years & tortoise can survive more than 400 years
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI remember reading about a Yellow Naped Amazon that had been reliably documented to have lived 106 years. If the longest-lived parrot they could find lived to 49, they were either confining themselves to African Greys, or had an extremely rigorous standard of proof.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this