Abstract
In human populations, women consistently outlive men, which suggests profound biological foundations for sex differences in survival. Quantifying whether such sex differences are also pervasive in wild mammals is a crucial challenge in both evolutionary biology and biogerontology. Here, we compile demographic data from 134 mammal populations, encompassing 101 species, to show that the female's median lifespan is on average 18.6% longer than that of conspecific males, whereas in humans the female advantage is on average 7.8%. On the contrary, we do not find any consistent sex differences in aging rates. In addition, sex differences in median adult lifespan and aging rates are both highly variable across species. Our analyses suggest that the magnitude of sex differences in mammalian mortality patterns is likely shaped by local environmental conditions in interaction with the sex-specific costs of sexual selection.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 8546-8553 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 117 |
Issue number | 15 |
Early online date | 23 Mar 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 14 Apr 2020 |
Funding
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Shripad Tuljapurkar and Tim Coulson for insightful comments on an earlier draft of this work and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This work was supported by grants from the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (ANR-15-CE32-0002-01 to J.-F.L.) and performed within the framework of the LABEX ECOFECT (ANR-11-LABX-0048) of Université de Lyon, within the program “Investissements d’Avenir” (ANR-11-IDEX-0007) operated by the ANR. T.S. and J.-M.G. were supported by a grant from the International Exchanges scheme CNRS-ROYAL SOCIETY 2016. T.S. was also funded by a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award (WM170050) and by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary grants (ÉLVONAL KKP-126949 and K-116310). A.L. was supported from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office of Hungary grant (KH 130430) and the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities grant (20385-3/2018/FEKUSTRAT).
Keywords
- Comparative analysis
- Life history
- Longevity
- Senescence
- Sexual selection
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General