Sexual selection drives sex difference in adult life expectancy across mammals and birds.

ABSTRACT: Across human cultures and historical periods, women, on average, live longer than men, a pattern best understood from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Here, we analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis. Yet, sex differences varied widely. In zoos, we found strong evidence that this variation generally correlated with both the mating system and sexual size dimorphism. Although with weaker evidence, the patterns remained consistent in populations from the wild, with an even larger effect of the mating system. Thus, even in zoos, where e

SUBMITTER: Staerk J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12487899 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature