The extent to which the age of parents at reproduction can affect offspring lifespan and other fitness-related traits is important in our understanding of the selective forces shaping life history evolution. In this article, the widely reported negative effects of parental age on offspring lifespan (the ‘Lansing effect’) is examined. Outlined herein are the potential routes whereby a Lansing effect can occur, whether effects might accumulate across multiple generations, and how the Lansing effect should be viewed as part of a broader framework, considering how parental age affects offspring fitness. The robustness of the evidence for a Lansing effect produced so far, potential confounding variables, and how the underlying mechanisms might best be unravelled through carefully designed experimental studies are discussed.

父母的年龄在多大程度上会影响后代的寿命和其他与健身相关的特征，这在我们对影响生活史演变的选择力的理解中很重要。在这篇文章中，研究了父母年龄对后代寿命的负面影响（“交往影响”）。考虑到父母的年龄如何影响后代的适应能力，本文概述了兰辛效应可能发生的潜在途径，效应是否会在多个世代中累积以及如何将兰辛效应视为更广泛框架的一部分。讨论了迄今为止产生的兰辛效应的证据的稳健性，潜在的混淆变量以及如何通过精心设计的实验研究来最好地阐明其潜在机理。