Longevity Traced to Grandmothers
October 24, 2012
Anthropology Professor Kristen Hawkes says humans are distinct among primates when it comes to longevity. Credit: Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah
In modern society, grandmothers are often called upon to babysit. But a few million years ago, when primate grandmothers first started doing that, they apparently had a major impact on human evolution. Scientists believe it’s a big reason why we live much longer than other primates. It’s called the “grandmother hypothesis.”
University of Utah Anthropology Professor Kristen Hawkes says humans are distinct among primates when it comes to longevity.
“One of the things that’s really different about us humans, compared to our closest living relatives, the other great apes, is that we have these really long lifespans. We reach adulthood later and then we have much longer adult lives. And an especially important thing about that is that women usually live through the childbearing years and are healthy and productive well beyond,” she said.
Other primates are not as lucky.
“In other great apes, females, if they make it to adulthood, they usually die in their childbearing years and they get to be old, frail and gray and less able to do all the things that we associate with getting old. Well, of course, it happens to all of us, but it happens slower and later to us compared to the other great apes,” she said.
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