Dinosaurs may be ‘the reason’ humans are aging rapidly

You don’t have to be a scientist to know that there’s a big difference between the way we humans and most mammals age and the slower pace of the same process that occurs among some species of reptiles and amphibians. The difference is so big that A turtle contemporary of Charles Darwin may now be reaching middle age.

Microbiologist João Pedro de Magalhäes from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom asks the question in a recent study published in the journal BioEssays: ““How can reptiles and other vertebrates age more slowly than mammals?”.

The result is impressive: It’s the dinosaurs’ fault. According to the author, mammals have generally become smaller, nocturnal and nocturnal after spending $100 million being hunted by these giant reptiles. Longstanding evolutionary pressure for rapid reproduction may have led to “the loss or inactivation of genes and pathways associated with longevity,” our colleagues suggest.

Longevity bottleneck hypothesis

Normally, We think aging is normal and some reptiles are ahead of the curve. We also think the ability of many amphibians to heal wounds (and even regenerate parts of their bodies) is extraordinary. But Magalhäes turns this idea on its head and asks: What if we are the weird ones?

named after “long-lived bottleneck hypothesis”The thesis suggests that mammals developed an adaptation capacity to live fast and die young during the Jurassic or Cretaceous period, and that they have not been able to fully escape this situation until today.

If Professor Magalhaes is right, it is possible that we are still experiencing a cursed legacy such as a decline in reproductive capacity or a slowdown in running speed as we age. This may even explain why humans are more susceptible to cancer than most animals.

What are the consequences of the longevity bottleneck?

Emphasizing that the longevity bottleneck is a hypothesis, not an established theory, the study touches on some important inferences. In addition to reproductive senescence mentioned above, this suggestion can be explained. “Very slow demographic aging and no dental erosion”says the research.

The author suggests that longevity bottlenecks may also exist among other taxa (similar organisms), resulting from predation or different types of ecological constraints, perhaps on shorter time scales than the dominance of dinosaurs.

In this sense, the study concludes, the use of evolutionary genomics may be an ideal way to not only detect unknown longevity bottlenecks, but also to reveal “whether other repair, defense or regeneration systems have been lost or inactivated in mammals.”

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