Humans Age Like Primates

Human aging and mortality rates, while we might imagine them to be unique, are in fact comparable to those of other primates. “New findings published in the latest issue of Science show how strong our ties to chimpanzees, gorillas and other primates is and counters the long-held belief that, with our relatively long life spans and access to modern medicine, we age more slowly than other animals. ‘We are making a conceptual point that humans are really very much more similar in their aging patterns to other primates than anyone had suspected before,’ co-author Susan Alberts, a professor of biology at Duke University, told Discovery News.”