Survival of the fittest. You’ve heard the term. So ponder this:
How come monkeys such as chimps, our closest relatives, don’t live as long or longer than humans? I mean, even well cared for zoo monkeys don’t usually live longer than 40-50 years, and that’s with excellent health care, great diet, lotsa exercise and social stimulation, but without the dangers of the wild. Plus, the whole “survival of the fittest” thing should mean that monkeys bred in the wild but raised in captivity should have both great genes and a great environment. Thus, ultra long life for Bongo. But that doesn’t happen. Why not?
The cause really is unknown. It may have something to do with the fact that humans are paedomorphic with respect to chimpanzees and the other anthropoid apes - that is, we retain juvenile traits (e.g. large head, less prominent jaws) into the adult form. This is coupled with much slower development and delayed maturity. It is possible, but extremely speculative, that this could be related to delayed aging as well.
Before someone points out the fact that human’s current prolonged lifespan is related to advances in medical treatment, nutrition, etc. I would mention that even the best-cared for chimp or gorilla usually does not survive to be even 50 in captivity (the oldest chimp on record apparently being the retired movie star Cheeta, as opposed to the typical human life span, barring disease or accident, of 70+ (with exceptional cases as long as 120+).
That is incorrect. Apes are a subset of primates, as are monkeys. In other words, monkeys and apes are co-equally classified in the Order Primate, but monkeys are in the [super]Families Cercopithecoidea (Old World monkeys) and Ceboidea (New World monkeys ) while Apes are in the Family Pongidae. This has nothing to do with the English language. If other languages use the term “monkey” to refer to “apes”, then that is contrary to the scientific convention.
To be more precise, I should have said “great apes”, or “anthropoid apes”, since gibbons and siamangs are also apes, but not in the family Pongindae. These are put in the family Hylobatidae.
Also, there is some disagreement about the whether the great apes and humans should be in seperate Families, or in the same family (Hominidae).
But no classification system puts monkeys and apes in the same Family.
A) Female chimps do not undergo menopause and hence remain fertile when they are older.
b) Chimpanzees may rely on knowing where and when particular fruit trees within their home ranges come into fruit. The older ones can rely on many years of experience to guide the rest of the troop to the best trees. Cultural transmission is very important among chimps.
I think it’s lack of motivation. If every single person you knew flung shit at each other on a regular basis, would you care much about living past your thirties?
It’s not just a question of English terminology. Though apes do not have language, have only very limited tool use, and for the most part do not walk upright, they are still more like humans than they are like true monkeys such as rhesuses and baboons. Even though they don’t walk upright, the ape body structure is adapted for an upright or semi-upright existence. This can be seen at any chimp or gorilla exhibit at a zoo: as the animals sit about within their enclosure, they tend to sit in humanlike positions, with the torso more or less upright and the hands free. Monkeys don’t do this, and are mostly designed as quadrupeds. A baboon, for instance, sits in the same way as your dog or cat, holding its upper body up with its forlimbs.
Does Swedish really have no generic term equivalent to “ape”? German, if memory serves, gerically terms all monkeys and apes as Affen, but distinguishes what we call apes as *Menschenaffen (man[like ]apes]) *.
Maybe they don’t live so long because we lock them up in cages no biger than a house when they are designed to wander all over several hectares of lush forest. Ever heard of cabin fever?
Ok…I might not have realized that those hot chimp babes stay fertile into the golden years, but I can tell you that chimps, or any creatures for that matter - are not “designed” to do anything.
Is that supposed to prove that apes are monkeys? Show me some scieintific classification that demostrates apes are monkeys. This isn’s about propogating common misconceptions or sloppy nomenclature. This is about clear scientific distinctions. Ape are not monkeys. Monkeys are not apes. That is an incontrovertible fact.
A monophyletic group that includes all monkeys has to include apes too, because apes are closer related to some monkeys (old world) than to others (new world). That group includes all descendants of one common ancestor. It would be reasonable to call that whole group monkeys. By that definition, apes are monkeys.
The question is actually a lot bigger than just humans and other primates. The fact is, that no matter how you measure it, humans live longer than any other animal. Asimov wrote an essay about this, wherein he points out that the maximum lifespan of any mammal is about a billion heartbeats (ranging from 700 million for blue whales to 1.3 billion for a housecat), with the sole exception of humans, who reach our billionth heartbeat some time in our early twenties. Nor can this be attributed to better medicine: Before modern medicine, folks died prematurely much more often than now, but in the rare instance that someone managed to die of old age, it was in the seventies or eighties.
My best guess for a cause of this is the high importance of education among humans, as compared to other animals. Even if he’s not still reproducing, an eighty year old man can still contribute to the survival of his genes, by teaching his grandchildren. Colibri points out that this can be significant for chimps, and I presume that it’s much more so for us.
As to the mechanism by which we’re able to live so long, I’ven’t a clue. But it ought to be a very interesting field of study: Understanding how we live so long may give us clues on how to extend our lives even further.
“Designed” in the passive sense, not the active one. An architect actively designs a house. Cats have been designed with tails to aid their balance (as well as indicating mood, and it’s fun to chase!).
Chimps have evolved with body parts that are useful for jumping around in trees eating fruit and leaves while not being eaten by tigers. It is the design of their bodies to which I am referring, from a purely engineering point of view. Locking them up in a cage - not taking into account other human interventions - will decrease their life expectancy.
