How did dinosaurs affect human aging?

Have you ever wondered why animals, especially birds and some reptiles, especially turtles, live long lives compared to mammals with the same body mass? According to molecular biogerontologist João Pedro de Magalhães, a professor at the Institute of Aging at the University of Birmingham, this may be an evolutionary relic dating back to the age of the dinosaurs – which ended with a mass extinction about 66 million years ago.

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João Pedro de Magalhães, the renowned expert on aging, who has devoted his entire career to understanding the genetic, cellular and molecular mechanisms of this defining characteristic of human development, has just published his remarkable hypothesis, “The Longevity Bottleneck” (Ref.). This hypothesis links the long-term ecological and evolutionary effects that predatory dinosaurs have had on the aging process in mammals, up to the present day.

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Some animal groups survived these effects. Why?

It has long been observed that most birds and some reptiles and amphibians show little or no signs of aging, while all mammals, including humans, exhibit a pronounced aging process. This is likely a result of the eating habits of dinosaurs, according to the expert.

“Some of the first mammals were forced to live at the bottom of the food chain, and may have spent 100 million years during the age of dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid reproduction,” Magalhaes said. “This long period of evolutionary pressure has, I think, an impact on how humans age.”

The hypothesis proposes that during the Mesozoic Era, when dinosaurs dominated the wild, mammals faced constant pressure to mature and reproduce quickly before being eaten. This stress has led to the loss or inactivation of genes associated with longevity, especially those associated with tissue regeneration and DNA repair.

“The longevity bottleneck hypothesis could shed light on science about the evolutionary forces that shaped mammalian aging over millions of years,” the professor explained. “Although humans are among the longest-lived animals, there are many reptiles and other animals that have a much slower aging process and show minimal signs of aging throughout their lives.”

In addition to more information about the aging of modern mammals, there is an interesting discovery from a different group that suggests that early mammals from the Jurassic period may have aged in a similar way to reptiles (Ref.) – that is, slowly. (Dinosaurs dominated during the middle and late Jurassic period.)

These studies suggest that many birds (which are, after all, dinosaurs) and some reptiles, especially turtles, possess the genes necessary to deal with oxidative stress and resulting tissue damage.

“We see examples in the animal world of really remarkable repair and regeneration. This genetic information was not essential for the first mammals that were lucky enough not to end up as food for T. rex,” Magalhães explained. “Although we now have a large number of “For mammals – including humans, whales and elephants – that grow and live for a long time, we and these mammals live with the genetic constraints of the Mesozoic era, and we age surprisingly faster than many reptiles.”

These genetic losses may also explain why mammals become more likely to develop cancer as they age.

“Although it is only a hypothesis at this time, there are many interesting angles to explore, including the possibility that cancer is more common in mammals than in other species due to our evolutionary history.”

source:
João Pedro de Magalhaes (2023). The longevity bottleneck hypothesis: Did dinosaurs shape aging in modern mammals? Bio Articles | doi:10.1002/bies.202300098

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