As the world confronts the health challenges of an ageing population, there has been dramatically increased interest in the science of ageing. This research has overwhelmingly focused on age-related disease, particularly in industrialized human populations and short-lived laboratory animal models. However, it has become clear that humans and long-lived primates age differently than many typical model organisms, and that many of the diseases causing death and disability in the developed world are greatly exacerbated by modern lifestyles. As such, research on how the human ageing process evolved is vital to understanding the origins of prolonged human lifespan and factors increasing vulnerability to degenerative disease. In this issue, we highlight emerging comparative research on primates, highlighting the physical, physiological, behavioural and cognitive processes of ageing. This work comprises data and theory on non-human primates, as well as under-represented data on humans living in small-scale societies, which help elucidate how environment shapes senescence. Component papers address (i) the critical processes that comprise senescence in long-lived primates; (ii) the social, ecological or individual characteristics that predict variation in the pace of ageing; and (iii) the complicated relationship between ageing trajectories and disease outcomes. Collectively, this work provides essential comparative, evolutionary data on ageing and demonstrates its unique potential to inform our understanding of the human ageing process.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution of the primate ageing process’.

随着世界面临人口老龄化带来的健康挑战，人们对老龄化科学的兴趣急剧增加。这项研究主要关注与年龄相关的疾病，特别是工业化人群和短命的实验动物模型。然而，很明显，人类和长寿灵长类动物的衰老速度与许多典型的模式生物不同，而且现代生活方式大大加剧了发达国家导致死亡和残疾的许多疾病。因此，研究人类衰老过程如何进化对于了解人类寿命延长的起源和增加退行性疾病脆弱性的因素至关重要。在本期中，我们重点介绍灵长类动物的新兴比较研究，重点介绍衰老的身体、生理、行为和认知过程。这项工作包括非人类灵长类动物的数据和理论，以及生活在小规模社会中的人类的代表性不足的数据，这有助于阐明环境如何影响衰老。组成论文讨论了（i）构成长寿灵长类动物衰老的关键过程； (ii) 预测衰老速度变化的社会、生态或个人特征； (iii)衰老轨迹与疾病结果之间的复杂关系。总的来说，这项工作提供了有关衰老的重要比较、进化数据，并展示了其独特的潜力，有助于我们了解人类衰老过程。

本文是主题“灵长类动物衰老过程的进化”的一部分。