Long-lived bats could hold secrets to mammal longevity
COLLEGE PARK, Maryland: University of Maryland researchers have found four bat lineages that exhibit extreme longevity.
They also identified, for the first time, two life history features that predict extended life spans in bats.
Their work is described in the journal Biology Letters, which concluded that horseshoe bats, longeared bats, the common vampire bat and at least one lineage of mouse-eared bats all live at least four times longer than other, similarly sized mammals.
“Scientists are very interested in finding closely related species in which one is long lived and one is short lived, because it implies that there has been some recent change to allow one species to live longer,” said Gerald Wilkinson, a biology professor at UMD and lead author of the paper. “This study provides multiple cases of closely related species with varying longevity, which gives us many opportunities to make comparisons and look for some underlying mechanism that would allow some species to live so long.”
Longevity is often correlated to body size, with larger animal species generally living longer than smaller ones. For example, an African elephant can live as long as 70 years, while a common house mouse typically lives only one to three years. Humans are considered relatively long-lived animals, tending to live about four times longer than most other mammals when adjusted for size.
But bats can far exceed that. Some species can live 40 years— eight times longer than similarly sized mammals—which is why scientists have long sought to understand bats as a model for healthy ageing.— Newswise