The most complete database on life expectancy

A new database on the life expectancy of vertebrates AnAge has appeared on the Internet — the most complete and accurateAlexander Markov, Elements
British biologists have published on the Internet the most complete database on the life expectancy of vertebrates to date — AnAge.

Unlike many other resources of this kind, AnAge includes only scientifically confirmed data. The database contains information about the maximum life expectancy of 3,650 vertebrate species (humans among them are on the 11th place in longevity), as well as body weight, growth and puberty rates, reproduction rate and other characteristics that can be used for comparative studies.

The problem of aging and life expectancy has always attracted the attention of scientists and the general public. Back in the IV century BC.e. Aristotle in his treatise "On longevity and brevity of life" talked about the reasons for the amazing differences in the duration of life observed in nature. There are few other areas of biology where disputes between experts would be so fierce, and the number of all kinds of scientific, pseudoscientific and pseudoscientific theories is so large. It is not surprising that a lot of dubious texts, tables and summaries have proliferated in the literature and on the Internet, so it has become difficult for researchers to separate the wheat from the chaff. The AnAge database (The Animal Aging & Longevity Database) is designed to help experts in the search for reliable, scientifically confirmed data on longevity.

The base began to be created about 10 years ago. All this time it has been constantly updated and refined, and now its authors have found it necessary to report their brainchild on the pages of the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. The current version of the database includes information about 4083 vertebrate species. For 3650 species, data on the maximum life expectancy has been entered; for many species, body weight at birth and in adulthood, growth and reproduction rate, puberty time, duration of pregnancy or egg hatching and some other characteristics are indicated, which allows for various comparative studies. You can download the database as a text file, import it into Excel or Access and build all kinds of graphs — for example, such as in the figure below.

The ratio of maximum life expectancy and body weight in six classes of vertebrates.
It can be seen that in all classes, small animals live on average less than large ones.
As body weight decreases, life expectancy decreases most rapidly in mammals,
whereas in bony fish and amphibians, this decrease is expressed to the least extent.
The graphs are constructed by the author of the note based on data from AnAge

The information entered into the database is based on more than 800 literary sources (of course, there are references to them in the database). The most important thing is that all the data were carefully checked in order to separate reliable information from dubious and unverified, or, as they are now called in Western literature, "anecdotal" (anekdotal). Anecdotal data, however, was also entered into the database, but only in the form of notes. For example, if you open an entry dedicated to a domestic cow (Bos taurus), you can see that the "official" maximum life expectancy of this species is 20 years, but the notes indicate that there is "anecdotal" information about cows that have lived longer, including a long—lived woman named Big Bertha, who allegedly lived 49 years.

Wherever possible, the authors indicated the sample size, that is, the number of animals for which reliable data on life expectancy are available. This is very important for any statistical analysis, because the larger the sample, the higher, other things being equal, the maximum life expectancy in it will be. The largest sample, as you might guess, is available for the species Homo sapiens. The database also indicates for which animals this or that figure was obtained — wild or kept in captivity.

A lot of interesting statistics can be extracted from the database. For example, you can find out how many representatives of different orders of mammals live (see Table 1).

Table 1. Minimum, maximum and average values of maximum life expectancy for all orders of mammals,
for which there is information about more than 10 species in the AnAge database (an exception is made for elephants, of which there are only two species left on earth).

You can also get lists of record holders. The shortest-lived species among vertebrates, according to AnAge, is the fish Eviota sigillata (dwarf goby), living no more than 59 days. Among mammals, the shrew Miosorex varius has the shortest life (maximum 2.1 years). The long-lived record holder is the bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus (the officially registered maximum life expectancy is 211 years), the second place is taken by the Aleutian sea bass Sebastes aleutianus (205 years), the person occupies an honorable 11th place (see Table 2).

Table 2. Eleven of the longest-lived vertebrate species.

The authors note that their database will help research in a variety of fields: from gerontology to evolutionary ecology. The database is regularly updated, and the authors ask all colleagues to inform them about errors and new data.

Sources:1) J. P. De Magalhaes, J. Costa.
A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits // Journal of Evolutionary Biology. Advance online publication 10 June 2009.
2) AnAge: The Animal Ageing & Longevity Database.
See also:J. P. de Magalhaes, J. Costa, G. M. Church.
An Analysis of the Relationship Between Metabolism, Developmental Schedules, and Longevity Using Phylogenetic Independent Contrasts // Journal of Gerontology. 2007.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/16.06.2009