Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Tokat Gaziosmanpasa University, 60250, Tokat, Turkey.
Biogerontology. 2021 Jun;22(3):329-343. doi: 10.1007/s10522-021-09919-w. Epub 2021 Apr 5.
Animals have a considerable variation in their longevity. This fundamental life-history trait is shaped by both intrinsic and extrinsic mortality pressures, influenced by multiple parameters including ecological variables and mode-of-life traits. Here, we examined the distribution of maximum age at multiple taxonomic ranks (class, order and family) in Chordata, and identified species with exceptional longevity within various taxa. We used a curated dataset of maximum longevity of animals from AnAge database, containing a total of 2542 chordates following our filtering criteria. We determined shapes of maximum age distributions at class, order and family taxonomic ranks, and calculated skewness values for each distribution, in R programming environment. We identified species with exceptional longevity compared to other species belonging to the same taxa, based on our definition of outliers. We collected data on ecological variables and mode-of-life traits which might possibly contribute, at least in part, to the exceptional lifespans of certain chordates. We found that 23, 12 and 4 species have exceptional longevity when we grouped chordates by their class, order and family, respectively. Almost all distributions of maximum age among taxa were positively skewed (towards increased longevity), possibly showing the emergence of longer lifespans in contrast to shorter lifespans, through the course of evolution. However, potential biases in the collection of data should be taken into account. Most of the identified species in the current study have not been previously studied in the context of animal longevity. Our analyses point that certain chordates may have evolved to have longer lifespans compared to other species belonging to the same taxa, and that among taxa, outliers in terms of maximum age have always longer lifespans, not shorter. Future research is required to understand how and why increased longevity have arose in certain species.
动物的寿命存在相当大的差异。这种基本的生活史特征受到内在和外在死亡率压力的影响，受包括生态变量和生活方式特征在内的多个参数影响。在这里，我们检查了脊索动物多个分类等级（纲、目和科）的最大年龄分布，并确定了各种分类群中具有异常长寿命的物种。我们使用了从 AnAge 数据库中精心筛选的动物最大寿命的数据集，其中包含了 2542 种脊索动物，符合我们的筛选标准。我们确定了类、目和科分类等级的最大年龄分布的形状，并在 R 编程环境中计算了每个分布的偏度值。我们根据异常值的定义，确定了与同一种群中其他物种相比具有异常长寿命的物种。我们收集了可能至少部分导致某些脊索动物异常寿命的生态变量和生活方式特征的数据。我们发现，当我们按类、目和科对脊索动物进行分组时，分别有 23、12 和 4 种物种具有异常长寿命。几乎所有分类群的最大年龄分布都是正偏（向更长的寿命），这可能表明在进化过程中，与较短的寿命相比，更长的寿命出现了。然而，应该考虑到数据收集的潜在偏差。目前研究中确定的大多数物种以前没有在动物寿命的背景下进行过研究。我们的分析表明，与同一种群中的其他物种相比，某些脊索动物可能已经进化出更长的寿命，而且在分类群中，最大年龄的异常值总是具有更长的寿命，而不是更短。需要进一步的研究来了解为什么某些物种的寿命会增加，以及如何增加。
