Live Long And Together

 

DISCOVERIES

Live Long and Together

There is safety in numbers – but as a new study suggests, there is also enhanced longevity, too.

Scientists recently studied more than 970 mammal species and found that those who lived in social groups had longer lives, the Guardian reported.

For their paper, the research team split the mammals into three categories: Solitary, pair-living, and group-living. They also conducted a genetic analysis for 94 species and identified 31 genes related to social organization and longevity.

The findings showed that animals living in bigger groups – such as zebras and elephants – tended to live longer on average than solitary species, such as the aardvark and eastern chipmunk.

Even when the researchers took into consideration a correlation between larger species size and longer lifespan, the correlation of group living and longevity held up.

For example, shrews have a maximum lifespan of roughly two years, while bowhead whales have a lifespan of more than 200 years. Instances of longer life in groups have been documented in chacma baboons, but a 2018 study discovered the opposite: Yellow-bellied marmots – a “socially flexible” species – linked strong social relationships to decreased longevity.

Biologist Celine Frere – who was not involved in the new study – cautioned that sociality and longevity are not so easily linked.

“It’s much more complicated than that,” she said. “(Lifespan) is tied to their ecology. It’s tied to their reproductive biology, it’s tied to their mating system.”