See, now that clears it right up. These guys are obviously right. |
Posted on 09/03/2007 5:28:52 PM PDT by blam
Public release date: 28-Aug-2007
Contact: Dr. Shripad Tuljapurkar
tulja@stanford.edu
Public Library of Science
In matters of sex and death, men are an essential part of the equation
Stanford scientists show in a forthcoming paper that traditional mating patterns make men the key to explaining away the “wall of death,” an enduring puzzle in the study of human longevity.
The paper, to appear in the August 29 issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE, proposes a solution to a conundrum in the study of human lifespan: why don’t we drop dead soon after the age of last female reproduction" Our understanding of the evolution of lifespan suggests that we have no defense against mutations that occur after we reach the end of our reproductive lives. As a result we expect a rapid increase in mortality -- a “wall of death” -- just after female menopause.
The authors show that the standard practice of tracking only female life histories leads to mistaken conclusions about the forces that shape human evolution. The reason is that men’s and women’s age patterns of fertility differ in important ways.
The paper brings together data from hunter-gatherer populations to show that male reproduction begins and ends later than women’s, and declines much more gradually. In many populations, historically and even today, some fraction of men continue to father children into their 60s and 70s with younger women.
In some groups, most notably Australian aboriginal and African polygynous societies, late-age male reproduction is common. In many hunter-gatherer societies, which may tell us most about how our ancestors once lived, men begin to reproduce a few years later than women of the same age and they typically continue to father children for several years after the age of female menopause due to the marriage gap in the ages of couples.
The marriage gap, in which older men marry younger women, appears to be a near-universal human trait.
Why Men Matter: Mating Patterns Drive Evolution of Human Lifespan
The fraction of men who father children with younger women when they themselves are in their 60s and 70s is 100%.
Must be a femino-nazi thing ;)
Thinking back upon the old B.C. comic strip and “hunter gatherer” cultures....Which female would likely get the best food, the freshest produce, the finest cuts of meat? The “Cute Chick” or the old “Fat Broad”? {Assuming us males were doing the hunting / gathering}
Surely Dr Tuljapurkar has considered this.
When I read the title, my thought was regarding the “death” part, because it is my job to kill the dog.
I hate it, but when it needs to be done ... it is my job.
Now I have scientific proof to tell my wife I need a few young chicks around! HA!
See, now that clears it right up. These guys are obviously right. |
Who woulda thunk it?
True for species which require no parental care of offspring and whose behavior is mostly instinctive.
However, humans require a long period of learned behavior during which care by the parents is critical. Because even the act of raising children is learned behavior, having the grandparents available during the child raising is also important. That means that a life span of as much as 40 years beyond child bearing can be expected.
Leave it to University Professors to fail to understand the most elementary facts.
Sex, Cigars, Death
Best post of the day.
Now I can go to bed.
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At first I didn't understand what these guys were talking about. So I clicked on the "press only" pdf file where it was finally revealed: