shmeeter

But none of this explains why something that has a similar mass as us, like a deer or something, has a much shorter life expectancy. I mean, even in captivity, with health care, etc., one couldn't expect a deer to live longer than say, what, 20 years? Do humans have some way to counter some of the effects of aging, like free radicals? Could it be due to something like genetic complexity or diversity? (I read once somewhere that chromosomes get their ends lopped off during replication or something, and that this could be related to aging. Maybe the chromosome ends are null genes, existing only as a buffer against that?)

Do animals with longer life spans actually age more slowly at the genetic or cellular level, or do they have some kind of mechanism for compensating for aging that is better than that of other animals? My hunch is the former, but I really don't know. I was brushing my dog, and thinking about his grey hairs at the age of 13, and one thought led to another, and here I am at science forums with my first post. Thanks in advance! Ian