Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: itadiki on 04/02/2018 22:36:14

Title: Are any other animals like dogs, where smaller breeds outlive larger ones?
Post by: itadiki on 04/02/2018 22:36:14

Hello,

We know that within the dog world the lifespan of smaller breed dog are significantly longer than large breed dog.
Is it the same within other species ?

Title: Re: Are any other animals like dogs, where smaller breeds outlive larger ones?
Post by: timey on 05/02/2018 00:06:15

Smaller horses also live longer than larger horses.  The heart (although there are exceptions to the rule) is bigger in the larger animal, but is generally not proportionally bigger to the largness of the animal, and therefore has to do more work to maintain the larger body, reducing life span. (or so I have been led to believe)
Wolves can live for 30 + years in optimum environment, and their cousins the domestic dog used to live a lot longer in the past. But breeding programs have weakened the gentics of pure breed dogs both large and small, reducing previous recorded lifespan expectancies.

Title: Re: Are any other animals like dogs, where smaller breeds outlive larger ones?
Post by: chris on 05/02/2018 09:01:33

Quote from: timey on 05/02/2018 00:06:15

Wolves can live for 30 + years in optimum environment

That's a long time! Do you have a reference for that statistic? How were those data collected?

Title: Re: Are any other animals like dogs, where smaller breeds outlive larger ones?
Post by: petelamana on 08/02/2018 21:04:50

I believe people, homo sapiens, would fit your conjecture. 

According to the National Institutes of Health, at the "top" of the statistics are African American males have an average height of 70 inches, and suffer a death rate/100,000 of:  all-causes = 1800, CHD (Coronary Heart Disease) = 316, stroke = 102.  At the bottom are Japanese males:  66 inches, 693, 146, and 52.

Now, I admit that these numbers do not take into account other characteristics such as:  tobacco use, diet, stress, sugar levels, etc., but the statistics are interesting nonetheless.

Thank you for posing the query.

Title: Re: Are any other animals like dogs, where smaller breeds outlive larger ones?
Post by: Ophiolite on 09/02/2018 06:14:22

When we make interspecies comparison there is some correlation in the reverse direction. For example, compare the lifespan of the elephant with that of the mouse. On reflection that may be mainly applicable to mammals.