What dictates the human lifespan? That is to say, why don’t humans live to be 150, 200 or more years old? Well, according to Microbiologists from the University of Birmingham in the UK, it might all have to do with the dinosaurs.
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00:00what dictates the human lifespan that is to say why don't humans live to be 150 200 or more years
00:10old well according to microbiologists with the university of birmingham in the uk it might all
00:15have to do with the dinosaurs they're calling it a longevity bottleneck suggesting that when mammals
00:20were first coming onto the scene evolutionarily they needed to reproduce asap as to not be eaten
00:26by dinosaurs which the researchers posit could mean that our genes for longevity were cast aside in
00:31exchange for quicker development and more numerous offspring with the researchers saying about it
00:36quote some of the earliest mammals were forced to live towards the bottom of the food chain and have
00:40likely spent 100 million years during the age of the dinosaurs evolving to survive through rapid
00:45reproduction saying that that very period of evolutionary pressure likely has lingering
00:50effects on our aging even today they point to evidence of a lost enzyme in the eutherian mammal
00:55lineage one that repairs uv damage to cells that could have been lost when many mammals became
01:00nocturnal for safety they also point to prehistoric predators like alligators that can regrow teeth in
01:05perpetuity unlike humans with the researchers adding that genetic information would have been
01:11unnecessary for early mammals that were lucky to not end up as t-rex food