title: Reproductive aging patterns in primates reveal that humans are distinct.
abstract: Women rarely give birth after ∼45 y of age, and they experience the cessation of reproductive cycles, menopause, at ∼50 y of age after a fertility decline lasting almost two decades. Such reproductive senescence in mid-lifespan is an evolutionary puzzle of enduring interest because it should be inherently disadvantageous. Furthermore, comparative data on reproductive senescence from other primates, or indeed other mammals, remains relatively rare. Here we carried out a unique detailed comparative study of reproductive senescence in seven species of nonhuman primates in natural populations, using long-term, individual-based data, and compared them to a population of humans experiencing natural fertility and mortality. In four of seven primate species we found that reproductive senescence occurred before death only in a small minority of individuals. In three primate species we found evidence of reproductive senescence that accelerated throughout adulthood; however, its initial rate was much lower than mortality, so that relatively few individuals experienced reproductive senescence before death. In contrast, the human population showed the predicted and well-known pattern in which reproductive senescence occurred before death for many women and its rate accelerated throughout adulthood. These results provide strong support for the hypothesis that reproductive senescence in midlife, although apparent in natural-fertility, natural-mortality populations of humans, is generally absent in other primates living in such populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. alberts@duke.edu
authors.forename: Susan C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Alberts
authors.forename: Jeanne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Altmann
authors.forename: Diane K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Brockman
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cords
authors.forename: Linda M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fedigan
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pusey
authors.forename: Tara S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Stoinski
authors.forename: Karen B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Strier
authors.forename: William F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Anne M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Bronikowski
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000502:physiology; D008954:Models, Biological; D011247:Pregnancy; D011323:Primates / Q000502:physiology*; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity
references.citation: Methods Ecol Evol. 2011 Oct 1;2(5):446-453
references.pmid: 22081792
references.citation: Front Zool. 2009 Feb 03;6:4
references.pmid: 19192288
references.citation: Evol Anthropol. 2013 Mar-Apr;22(2):66-79
references.pmid: 23585379
references.citation: Am J Hum Biol. 2001 Jul-Aug;13(4):434-52
references.pmid: 11400215
references.citation: Am J Hum Biol. 2003 May-Jun;15(3):380-400
references.pmid: 12704714
references.citation: Am J Hum Biol. 2002 Mar-Apr;14(2):184-205
references.pmid: 11891933
references.citation: Curr Biol. 2007 Dec 18;17(24):2150-6
references.pmid: 18083515
references.citation: Science. 2011 Mar 11;331(6022):1325-8
references.pmid: 21393544
references.citation: Interdiscip Top Gerontol. 2008;36:147-61
references.pmid: 18523377
references.citation: Nature. 1998 Apr 23;392(6678):807-11
references.pmid: 9572138
references.citation: Aging Cell. 2012 Dec;11(6):940-8
references.pmid: 22805302
references.citation: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Aug;1204:21-9
references.pmid: 20738272
references.citation: Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2004 Nov;79(4):733-50
references.pmid: 15682868
references.citation: Menopause. 2009 Nov-Dec;16(6):1178-87
references.pmid: 19568209
references.citation: Popul Dev Rev. 2003 Sep 1;29 Supp(3):270-291
references.pmid: 19337587
references.citation: Methods Ecol Evol. 2010 Jun;1(2):199-211
references.pmid: 21698066
references.citation: Hum Nat. 1991 Dec;2(4):313-50
references.pmid: 24222339
references.citation: Proc Biol Sci. 2012 Dec 22;279(1749):4880-4
references.pmid: 23097518
references.citation: Am J Hum Biol. 2009 Jul-Aug;21(4):578-86
references.pmid: 19213006
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Apr 8;105(14):5332-6
references.pmid: 18378891
references.citation: Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2010 Aug;1204:43-53
references.pmid: 20738274
references.citation: Science. 1990 Aug 24;249(4971):902-5
references.pmid: 2392680
references.citation: Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Feb 3;95(3):1336-9
references.pmid: 9448332