Social Organisation Predicts Lifespan in Mammals.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary Biology
• Mammalogy
• Ecology

Background:

• Comparative analyses suggest a link between social organisation and longevity in mammals.
• Further research with larger datasets is needed to confirm this pattern.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between social organisation and maximum lifespan in mammals.
• To validate previous findings on sociality and longevity using an extensive dataset.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of lifespan, body mass, and social organisation data for 1436 mammal species.
• Application of Bayesian phylogenetic comparative methods to control for body mass and evolutionary relationships.
• Categorisation of social systems into solitary, pair-living, and group-living.

Main Results:

• Group-living and pair-living mammals exhibit significantly longer lifespans than solitary species, even after controlling for body mass and phylogeny.
• Pair-living species showed a trend towards longer lifespans than group-living species, though this difference was not statistically significant.
• Body mass and activity period showed weaker associations with lifespan compared to social organisation.

Conclusions:

• Social organisation is a significant factor influencing mammalian longevity, alongside body size and ecological adaptations.
• While social living may offer benefits like reduced predation, potential costs such as pathogen transmission in larger groups might limit lifespan extension.
• The findings provide robust, independent evidence supporting the role of sociality in mammalian life-history evolution.