Evolutionary explanations matter for people because they point to mechanisms that might be shared across species. If certain mating strategies, levels of parental care, or patterns of mortality consistently link to sex differences in ageing, those signals can guide biomedical research and public health thinking. That path from wild populations to human health is not straightforward, but it is where meaningful insights are found.
If you care about human potential and fairness, then understanding why one sex tends to live longer intersects with how we design health systems, support caregivers, and target preventive care. The study opens questions about how social change, environment, and biology interact to shape lifespan. Follow the full article to see how these large-scale comparisons may change the way we think about ageing, resilience, and inclusive strategies for healthy longevity.
An international team of researchers led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, working with 15 collaborators around the world, has conducted the most comprehensive study yet of lifespan differences between the sexes in mammals and birds. Their findings shed new light on one of biology’s enduring mysteries: why males and females age differently.