Epigenetic Age Estimation for Hawaiian False Killer Whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the Absence of 'Known-Age' Individuals.

ABSTRACT: Epigenetic aging models hold great promise for enhancing many aspects of wildlife research and management. However, their utility is limited by the need to train models using known-aged animals, which are rare among wildlife species. We present a novel approach to developing methylation-based age prediction models that enables us to train models using samples from individuals whose chronological age is estimated with uncertainty based on photo-identification catalogue data. Our approach incorporates this uncertainty into model training by representing the age of each individual with a probability distribution rather than a point estimate. We similarly represent the methylation profiles of individuals as binomial distributions and produce a distribution of predicted age for each sample that

SUBMITTER: Martien KK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12811820 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature