Skip main navigationJournal menuClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Brought to you by Laboratorio Nacional de Engenharia Civil
Skip main navigationJournal menuClose Drawer MenuOpen Drawer Menu
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
You have accessResearch articles

Increased longevity evolves from grandmothering

Published:24 October 2012https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2012.1751

    Abstract

    Postmenopausal longevity may have evolved in our lineage when ancestral grandmothers subsidized their daughters' fertility by provisioning grandchildren, but the verbal hypothesis has lacked mathematical support until now. Here, we present a formal simulation in which life spans similar to those of modern chimpanzees lengthen into the modern human range as a consequence of grandmother effects. Greater longevity raises the chance of living through the fertile years but is opposed by costs that differ for the sexes. Our grandmother assumptions are restrictive. Only females who are no longer fertile themselves are eligible, and female fertility extends to age 45 years. Initially, there are very few eligible grandmothers and effects are small. Grandmothers can support only one dependent at a time and do not care selectively for their daughters' offspring. They must take the oldest juveniles still relying on mothers; and infants under the age of 2 years are never eligible for subsidy. Our model includes no assumptions about brains, learning or pair bonds. Grandmother effects alone are sufficient to propel the doubling of life spans in less than sixty thousand years.

    References

    • 1
      Robson S. L., van Schaik C. P.& Hawkes K.. 2006The derived features of human life history. The evolution of human life history (eds , Hawkes K.& Paine R.), pp. 17–44. Santa Fe, NM: SAR Press. Google Scholar
    • 2
      Finch C. E.. 2010Evolution of the human lifespan and diseases of aging: roles of infection, inflammation, and nutrition. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 1718–1724.doi:10.1073/pnas.0909606106 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0909606106). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 3
      Howell N.. 1979Demography of the Dobe !Kung. New York, NY: Academic Press. Google Scholar
    • 4
      Hill K.& Hurtado A. M.. 1996Ache life history: the ecology and demography of a foraging people. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Google Scholar
    • 5
      Blurton Jones N. G., Hawkes K.& O'Connell J. F.. 2002Antiquity of postreproductive life: are there modern impacts on hunter–gatherer postreproductive life spans?Am. J. Hum. Biol. 14, 184–205.doi:10.1002/ajhb.10038 (doi:10.1002/ajhb.10038). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 6
      Hawkes K.& Blurton Jones N. G.. 2005Human age structures, paleodemography, and the grandmother hypothesis. Grandmotherhood: the evolutionary significance of the second half of female life (eds , Voland E., Chasiotis A.& Schiefenhovel W.), pp. 118–140. New Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers University Press. Google Scholar
    • 7
      Hamilton W. D.. 1966The moulding of senescence by natural selection. J. Theoret. Biol. 12, 12–45.doi:10.1016/0022-5193(66)90184-6 (doi:10.1016/0022-5193(66)90184-6). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 8
      Hawkes K., O'Connell J. F.& Blurton Jones N. G.. 1989Hardworking Hadza grandmothers. Comparative socioecology: the behavioural ecology of humans and other mammals (eds , Standen V.& Foley R. A.), pp. 341–366. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Scientific. Google Scholar
    • 9
      Hawkes K., O'Connell J. F., Blurton Jones N. G., Alvarez H. P.& Charnov E. L.. 1998Grandmothering, menopause, and the evolution of human life histories. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 95, 1336–1339.doi:10.1073/pnas.95.3.1336 (doi:10.1073/pnas.95.3.1336). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 10
      O'Connell J. F., Hawkes K.& Blurton Jones N. G.. 1999Grandmothering and the evolution of Homo erectus. J. Hum. Evol. 36, 461–485.doi:10.1006/jhev.1998.0285 (doi:10.1006/jhev.1998.0285). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 11
      Hawkes K.. 2003Grandmothers and the evolution of human longevity. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 15, 380–400.doi:10.1002/ajhb.10156 (doi:10.1002/ajhb.10156). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 12
      Voland E., Chasiotis A.& Schiefenhovel W. (eds) 2005Grandmotherhood: the evolutionary significance of the second half of female life. New Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers University Press. Google Scholar
    • 13
      Sear R.& Mace R.. 2008Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evol. Hum. Behav. 29, 1–18.doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001 (doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2007.10.001). Crossref, Google Scholar
    • 14
      Sear R.& Coall D.. 2011How much does family matter? Cooperative breeding and the demographic transition. Pop. Dev. Rev. 37, 81–112.doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x (doi:10.1111/j.1728-4457.2011.00379.x). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 15
      Hill K.& Hurtado A. M.. 2009Cooperative breeding in South American hunter–gatherers. Proc. R. Soc. B 276, 3863–3870.doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1061 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2009.1061). Link, Google Scholar
    • 16
      Williams G. C.. 1957Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence. Evolution 11, 398–411.doi:10.2307/2406060 (doi:10.2307/2406060). Crossref, Google Scholar
    • 17
      Paul A.. 2005Primate predispositions for human grandmaternal behavior. Grandmotherhood: the evolutionary significance of the second half of female life (eds , Voland E., Chasiotis A.& Schiefenhovel W.), pp. 21–37. New Brunswick, Canada: Rutgers University Press. Google Scholar
    • 18
      Walker M. L.& Herndon J. G.. 2008Menopause in nonhuman primates?Biol. Reprod. 79, 398–406.doi:10.1095/biolreprod.108.068536 (doi:10.1095/biolreprod.108.068536). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 19
      Rogers A. R.. 1993Why menopause?Evol. Ecol. 7, 406–420.doi:10.1007/bf01237872 (doi:10.1007/bf01237872). Crossref, Google Scholar
    • 20
      Shanley D. P., Sear R., Mace R.& Kirkwood T. B. L.. 2007Testing evolutionary theories of menopause. Proc. R. Soc. B 274, 2943–2949.doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1028 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1028). Link, ISI, Google Scholar
    • 21
      Cant M. A.& Johnstone R. A.. 2008Reproductive conflict and the separation of reproductive generations in humans. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 105, 5332–5336.doi:10.1073/pnas.0711911105 (doi:10.1073/pnas.0711911105). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 22
      Lee R. D.. 2003Rethinking the evolutionary theory of aging: transfers, not births, shape social species. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 9637–9642.doi:10.1073/pnas.1530303100 (doi:10.1073/pnas.1530303100). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 23
      Kachel A. F., Premo L. S.& Hublin J. J.. 2011Grandmothering and natural selection. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 384–391.doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1247 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.1247). Link, Google Scholar
    • 24
      Hawkes K., Kim P. S., Kennedy B., Bohlender R.& Hawks J. A.. 2011Reappraisal of grandmothering and natural selection. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 1936–1938.doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2720 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2010.2720). Link, Google Scholar
    • 25
      Kachel A. F., Premo L. S.& Hublin J. J.. 2011Grandmothering and natural selection revisited reply. Proc. R. Soc. B 278, 1939–1941.doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0472 (doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.0472). Link, Google Scholar
    • 26
      Charnov E. L.. 1993Life history invariants: some explorations of symmetry in evolutionary ecology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar
    • 27
      Knott C.. 2001Female reproductive ecology of the apes: implications for human evolution. Reproductive ecology and human evolution (ed. & Ellison P. T.), pp. 429–463. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Google Scholar
    • 28
      Hrdy S. B.. 2009Mothers and others: the evolutionary origins of mutual understanding. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Google Scholar
    • 29
      Grey P.& Anderson K. G.. 2010Fatherhood: evolution and human paternal behavior. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar
    • 30
      Kramer K.. 2011The evolution of human parental care and recruitment of juvenile help. Trends Ecol. Evol. 26, 533–540.doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.06.002 (doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.06.002). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 31
      Isler K.& van Schaik C. P.. 2009The expensive brain: a framework for explaining evolutionary changes in brain size. J. Hum. Evol. 57, 392–400.doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.04.009 (doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2009.04.009). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 32
      Kaplan H., Hill K., Lancaster J.& Hurtado A. M.. 2000A theory of human life history evolution: diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evol. Anthropol. 9, 156–185.doi:10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7 (doi:10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:4<156::AID-EVAN5>3.0.CO;2-7). Crossref, Google Scholar
    • 33
      Kaplan H., Gurven M., Winking J., Hooper P.& Stieglitz J.. 2010Learning, menopause and the human adaptive complex. Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 1204, 30–42.doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05528.x (doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05528.x). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    • 34
      Burkart J.& van Schaik C.. 2010Cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding in primates?Anim. Cogn. 13, 1–19.doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0263-7 (doi:10.1007/s10071-009-0263-7). Crossref, PubMed, Google Scholar
    Previous ArticleBack to TopNext Article