![]() Some are larger, some smaller, some stronger, some faster. Think about all the lions that live in an area. It explains how sea animals came to land, and how they became dinosaurs, and birds, and monkeys. Why do not humans repair all the damage to their bodies, like clams do, and live forever? Is there a bigger reason why most animals get older and weaker and eventually die?Ī wise biologist once said, “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” Evolution explains why the animals alive now are much different from those that lived millions of years ago. Both clams and people suffer damage to their bodies as they age, but clams repair all their bodily damage, while humans only partially repair their damage, so it accumulates. Compare this to clams: a giant 100-year-old clam is actually much less likely to die than a medium-sized 15-year-old clam. A 100-year-old man has an extremely high probability of dying before his 101st birthday, but a 15-year-old boy can look forward to his 16th birthday. Some animal species age very quickly and die in less than a day, while others, like some species of jellyfish and clams, seem to never get old. But, unlike furniture, living things have built-in repair mechanisms. As time passes, a sofa gets damaged and it breaks. But why not? Maybe we are like furniture. ![]() Human bodies are just not built to live forever. And, if they live long enough, that weakness will even kill them in the end. ![]() More importantly, as most animals and humans get really old, they start to get weaker. Aging Is Nearly Universal… But Why?Īlmost all animals get old. We suggest that getting old and dying serves an important purpose: when the old die, the young can adapt faster to a changing world. But there is a deeper question: why do humans and other animals get old at all? Do our bodies just wear out, like old machines? Or is there an important evolutionary reason for getting old? In this article, we will explore those questions. That is, they try to understand how the cells and living tissues behave as they get older. Many people work on the question of how aging happens. If we want to live longer, understanding why we get weaker is important. That happens to most, but not all, animal species. Sooner or later, our health fails, and we die. As we get old, we become weaker and more vulnerable to diseases.
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