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Body size, mortality, and longevity.

W A Calder

    Journal of Theoretical Biology
    |May 7, 1983
    PubMed
    Summary

    Body size influences mortality and longevity in birds and mammals. Larger animals experience longer lifespans, suggesting a link between size, aging, and social structures in populations.

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    Area of Science:

    • Comparative physiology
    • Ecology
    • Gerontology

    Background:

    • Mortality and longevity patterns are crucial for understanding population dynamics and life history strategies.
    • Previous research indicates a relationship between body size and lifespan across species, but detailed analyses across different classes are needed.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate the body-size dependent relationships of mortality and longevity in birds and eutherian mammals.
    • To determine if population-age structure and reproductive potential are influenced by body size.

    Main Methods:

    • Analysis of mortality rates and maximum recorded longevity across various bird and mammal species.
    • Calculation of survival times for fractions of original adult populations.
    • Examination of the ratio of time for survival of 1 in 1000 to maximum potential lifespan (t0.001/tmax) as a function of body mass (m).

    Main Results:

    • Differences in mass exponents for longevity and survival confirm age-dependence of mortality and size-dependency of population-age distribution in both birds and mammals.
    • The potential number of offspring produced by a surviving fraction of a mammalian population is a size-independent ecological constant.
    • The ratio t0.001/tmax increases with body size, indicating that the expected lifespan approaches the maximum potential lifespan in larger animals.

    Conclusions:

    • Body size significantly impacts mortality and longevity patterns across diverse taxa.
    • Larger animals exhibit a greater proportion of older individuals, potentially fostering more complex social structures due to increased continuity and experience within the population.
    • Lifespan is strongly influenced by body size, with larger mammals and birds living proportionally longer relative to their maximum potential lifespan.

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