Is senescence inevitable and universal for all living organisms, as evolutionary theories predict? Although evidence generally supports this hypothesis, it has been proposed that certain species, such as turtles and tortoises, may exhibit slow or even negligible senescence—i.e., avoiding the increasing risk of death from gradual deterioration with age. In an extensive comparative study of turtles and tortoises living in zoos and aquariums, we show that ~75% of 52 species exhibit slow or negligible senescence. For ~80% of species, aging rates are lower than those in modern humans. We find that body weight positively relates to adult life expectancy in both sexes, and sexual size dimorphism explains sex differences in longevity. Unlike humans and other species, we show that turtles and tortoises may reduce senescence in response to improvements in environmental conditions.

中文翻译：

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睾丸中缓慢且可忽略不计的衰老挑战了衰老的进化理论

正如进化理论所预测的那样，所有生物体的衰老都是不可避免的和普遍的吗？尽管证据普遍支持这一假设，但有人提出，某些物种，如海龟和陆龟，可能表现出缓慢甚至可以忽略不计的衰老——即，避免随着年龄的增长而逐渐恶化的死亡风险增加。在对生活在动物园和水族馆的海龟和陆龟进行的广泛比较研究中，我们发现 52 个物种中的约 75% 表现出缓慢或可忽略不计的衰老。对于约 80% 的物种，衰老率低于现代人类。我们发现体重与两性的成年预期寿命呈正相关，而性别大小二态性解释了寿命的性别差异。与人类和其他物种不同，