As life processes, the last stage of life’s evolution is old age.
Scientists believe that aging may actually be a consequence of how we evolved to reproduce, and it’s all a result of natural selection over millions of years.
A study indicated that people carrying gene variances promoting reproduction are less likely to survive to old age.
“We confirm a hypothesis called the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis, which says that mutations promoting reproduction are more likely to reduce life span,” said Jianzhi Zhang, of the University of Michigan in the US and senior author of the study in the journal Science.
According to the research, It’s unclear why, but individuals with genetic variances promoting reproduction were more likely to die by the age of 76.
Although, humans are still evolving and strengthening the trait.
“This shows the evolutionary pattern of high reproduction and low survival [and vice versa] is still visible in modern humans. Our gene variants are the product of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. What’s surprising is that despite our far better health than ever before, this pattern is still visible,” said Steven Austad, an expert in aging research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in the US, who wasn’t involved in the study.”
saharandaily