Aging in wild female lemurs: sustained fertility with increased infant mortality.

Aging in wild female lemurs: sustained fertility with increased infant mortality. Interdiscip Top Gerontol. 2008;36:17-28 Authors: Wright P, King SJ, Baden A, Jernvall J Abstract Understanding the way prosimian primates age can be helpful in inferring what the 'basal primate mode' of senescence may have been. Even though prosimians are known to be long-lived in captivity, relatively little is known about their reproductive senescence, and even less is known about how prosimians age in their natural habitats. Twenty years of observational data in Madagascar for four Propithecus edwardsi sifaka groups were used to analyze reproductive and behavioral trends of aging in the wild. Techniques using tooth wear were developed to establish ages of wild sifakas and to estimate the onset of their 'dental senescence', a proxy for the onset of decline in the ability to obtain nutrition. Estimated maximum longevity was 32 years for female sifakas. Based on the loss of dental functional morphology, and changes in tooth wear patterns and in chewing efficiency, dental senescence was estimated to set in at approximately 18 years of age. Of the adult females in the study groups, the yearly average of the number of dentally senescent females was 24%. There was no indication of a decline in fertility in the dentally senescent females (aged >18 years) compared to younger adult females (aged 4-18 years). The field data showed, however, that in years whe...
Source: Interdisciplinary Topics in Gerontology - Category: Geriatrics Tags: Interdiscip Top Gerontol Source Type: research