Title |
Reproductive cessation and post-reproductive lifespan in Asian elephants and pre-industrial humans
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Published in |
Frontiers in Zoology, August 2014
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DOI | 10.1186/s12983-014-0054-0 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Mirkka Lahdenperä, Khyne U Mar, Virpi Lummaa |
Abstract |
Short post-reproductive lifespan is widespread across species, but prolonged post-reproductive life-stages of potential adaptive significance have been reported only in few mammals with extreme longevity. Long post-reproductive lifespan contradicts classical evolutionary predictions of simultaneous senescence in survival and reproduction, and raises the question of whether extreme longevity in mammals promotes such a life-history. Among terrestrial mammals, elephants share the features with great apes and humans, of having long lifespan and offspring with long dependency. However, little data exists on the frequency of post-reproductive lifespan in elephants. Here we use extensive demographic records on semi-captive Asian elephants (n = 1040) and genealogical data on pre-industrial women (n = 5336) to provide the first comparisons of age-specific reproduction, survival and post-reproductive lifespan in both of these long-lived species. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Finland | 2 | 29% |
Hong Kong | 1 | 14% |
Hungary | 1 | 14% |
Switzerland | 1 | 14% |
Unknown | 2 | 29% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
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Members of the public | 5 | 71% |
Scientists | 2 | 29% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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Germany | 1 | <1% |
Austria | 1 | <1% |
South Africa | 1 | <1% |
United Kingdom | 1 | <1% |
Denmark | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 111 | 96% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Ph. D. Student | 24 | 21% |
Researcher | 22 | 19% |
Student > Bachelor | 18 | 16% |
Student > Master | 12 | 10% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 5 | 4% |
Other | 13 | 11% |
Unknown | 22 | 19% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 45 | 39% |
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 15 | 13% |
Environmental Science | 8 | 7% |
Social Sciences | 6 | 5% |
Medicine and Dentistry | 5 | 4% |
Other | 12 | 10% |
Unknown | 25 | 22% |