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Mortality and fertility rates in humans and chimpanzees: How within-species variation complicates cross-species comparisons by Kristen Hawkes; Ken R. Smith; Shannen L. Robson is a Medicine article available to read on EtoBox.

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## Abstract A grandmother hypothesis may explain why humans evolved greater longevity while continuing to end female fertility at about the same age as do the other great apes. With that grandmother hypothesis in mind, we sought to compare age‐specific mortality and fertility rates between humans and chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, and found two puzzles. First, we expected that lower adult mortality in humans would be associated with slower senescence, but the rate of chimpanzee demographic aging falls within the human range. Second, we expected declines in age‐specific fertility to be similar in the two species but instead of falling in the thirties as it does in women, fertility remains high into the forties in some chimpanzee populations. We report these puzzles using data from nine human populations and both wild and captive chimpanzees, and suggest that systematic differences in the heterogeneity of surviving adults may explain them. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

Who reads Mortality and fertility rates in humans and chimpanzees: How within-species variation complicates cross-species comparisons?

Author

Kristen Hawkes; Ken R. Smith; Shannen L. Robson

Publisher

John Wiley and Sons; Wiley (John Wiley & Sons); John Wiley & Sons Inc.; Wiley (ISSN 1042-0533)

Published

2009

Language

EN

Field

Medicine (Health Sciences)