IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v396y1998i6713d10.1038_25519.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success

Author

Listed:
  • Rudi G. J. Westendorp

    (Section of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and Clinical Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Centre CO-P
    Biological Gerontology Group, University of Manchester)

  • Thomas B. L. Kirkwood

    (Biological Gerontology Group, University of Manchester)

Abstract

The disposable soma theory on the evolution of ageing states that longevity requires investments in somatic maintenance that reduce the resources available for reproduction1,2. Experiments in Drosophila melanogaster indicate that trade-offs of this kind exist in non-human species3,4,5,6,7. We have determined the interrelationship between longevity and reproductive success in Homo sapiens using a historical data set from the British aristocracy. The number of progeny was small when women died at an early age, increased with the age of death, reaching a plateau through the sixth, seventh and eighth decades of life, but decreased again in women who died at an age of 80 years or over. Age at first childbirth was lowest in women who died early and highest for women who died at the oldest ages. When account was taken only of women who had reached menopause, who were aged 60 years and over, female longevity was negatively correlated with number of progeny and positively correlated with age at first childbirth. The findings show that human life histories involve a trade-off between longevity and reproduction.

Suggested Citation

  • Rudi G. J. Westendorp & Thomas B. L. Kirkwood, 1998. "Human longevity at the cost of reproductive success," Nature, Nature, vol. 396(6713), pages 743-746, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6713:d:10.1038_25519
    DOI: 10.1038/25519
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/25519
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/25519?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manuela Angelucci & Daniel Bennett, 2021. "Adverse Selection in the Marriage Market: HIV Testing and Marriage in Rural Malawi [Marrying Up: The Role of Sex Ratio in Assortative Matching]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(5), pages 2119-2148.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:396:y:1998:i:6713:d:10.1038_25519. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.