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Human mortality improvement in evolutionary context.

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Title: Human mortality improvement in evolutionary context.
Authors: Burger, Oskar1 burger@demogr.mpg.de, Baudisch, Annette1, Vaupe, James W.1,2,3 jwv@demogr.mpg.de
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 10/30/2012, Vol. 109 Issue 44, p18210-18214. 5p.
Subjects: Mortality, Adaptability (Personality), Ethnology, Comparative studies, Chimpanzees as laboratory animals, Cross-species amplification
Abstract: Life expectancy is increasing in most countries and has exceeded 80 in several, as low-mortality nations continue to make progress in averting deaths. The health and economic implications of mortality reduction have been given substantial attention, but the observed malleability of human mortality has not been placed in a broad evolutionary context. We quantify the rate and amount of mortality reduction by comparing a variety of human populations to the evolved human mortality profile, here estimated as the average mortality pattern for ethnographically observed hunter-gatherers. We show that human mortality has decreased so substantially that the difference between hunter-gatherers and today's lowest mortality populations is greater than the difference between hunter-gatherers and wild chimpanzees. The bulk of this mortality reduction has occurred since 1900 and has been experienced by only about 4 of the roughly 8,000 human generations that have ever lived. More-over, mortality improvement in humans is on par with or greater than the reductions in mortality in other species achieved by laboratory selection experiments and endocrine pathway mutations. This observed plasticity in age-specific risk of death is at odds with conventional theories of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America is the property of National Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Engineering Source
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Mortality%22">Mortality</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Adaptability+%28Personality%29%22">Adaptability (Personality)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Ethnology%22">Ethnology</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Comparative+studies%22">Comparative studies</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Chimpanzees+as+laboratory+animals%22">Chimpanzees as laboratory animals</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Cross-species+amplification%22">Cross-species amplification</searchLink>
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  Data: Life expectancy is increasing in most countries and has exceeded 80 in several, as low-mortality nations continue to make progress in averting deaths. The health and economic implications of mortality reduction have been given substantial attention, but the observed malleability of human mortality has not been placed in a broad evolutionary context. We quantify the rate and amount of mortality reduction by comparing a variety of human populations to the evolved human mortality profile, here estimated as the average mortality pattern for ethnographically observed hunter-gatherers. We show that human mortality has decreased so substantially that the difference between hunter-gatherers and today's lowest mortality populations is greater than the difference between hunter-gatherers and wild chimpanzees. The bulk of this mortality reduction has occurred since 1900 and has been experienced by only about 4 of the roughly 8,000 human generations that have ever lived. More-over, mortality improvement in humans is on par with or greater than the reductions in mortality in other species achieved by laboratory selection experiments and endocrine pathway mutations. This observed plasticity in age-specific risk of death is at odds with conventional theories of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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  Data: <i>Copyright of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America is the property of National Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1073/pnas.1215627109
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 5
        StartPage: 18210
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Mortality
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Adaptability (Personality)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Ethnology
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Comparative studies
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Chimpanzees as laboratory animals
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Cross-species amplification
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      – TitleFull: Human mortality improvement in evolutionary context.
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            NameFull: Burger, Oskar
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            NameFull: Baudisch, Annette
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            NameFull: Vaupe, James W.
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            – D: 30
              M: 10
              Text: 10/30/2012
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            – TitleFull: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
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