Mice in the wild have a lifespan of roughly 365 days. Divide by ten to get life expectancy for humans “in the wild”. Mice living in a sheltered vivarium (but wi

Mice in the wild have a lifespan of roughly 365 days. Divide by ten to get life expectancy for humans “in the wild”. Mice living in a sheltered vivarium (but with pathogen exposure) make it out to 600 to 700 days. Mice in a specific-pathogen free vivarium routinely get to 700 to 900 days. Divide by ten again to get life expectancy of humans in a supportive “healthy” environment with some medical support. From this point of view, mice live roughly 2.5X their reproductive lifespan; very similar to human post-reproductive lifespan. There is nothing unusual or special about human lifespan, or even maximal longevity. Some normal mice (not growth hormone mutants) make it out to 1400 days. The heritability of life expectancy increases with age in both mice and humans. Or crudely put—bad luck kills you in youth; bad alleles kill you in old age.