Final Report Summary - HUMAN LIFESPAN (Mothers, grandmothers and the evolution of prolonged lifespan in humans)
My project has answered five main questions: 1. How does reproductive investment affect reproductive and post-reproductive senescence in humans; 2. What proportion of grandchildren is gained post-reproduction and how is this influenced; 3. Is there heritable variation in the life-history traits and their senescence rate, and how do genetic correlations between them influence evolution; 4. How do patterns of fitness acquisition account for menopause, prolonged post-reproductive lifespan and ultimately the age of death in humans; 5. How do fitness maximising traits differ between men and women and how does this reflect on their lifespan. These questions were answered using unique demographic data on up to 15 generations of individuals living both before and after the availability of healthcare and modern contraceptives in Finland. The results of this study are new and have important implications for predicting demographic structure in human populations and understanding the ecological and genetic basis of reproductive patterns and senescence. The results have advanced our understanding of the natural selection on age-specific reproductive and survival rates in long-lived species, its interactions with ecological variation and underlying genetic architecture.