2 ms·
Humans have pretty low selective pressure for cancer resistant genes (a tiny fraction of people get cancer before or during their reproductive years). I wonder
by maxerickson 21d ago
Humans have pretty low selective pressure for cancer resistant genes (a tiny fraction of people get cancer before or during their reproductive years).
I wonder if whales survive to an equivalent of human old age (where we can be pretty fragile and still survive for decades).
- ComputerGuru 21d ago> I wonder if whales survive to an equivalent of human old age (where we can be pretty fragile and still survive for decades). They do and this is well-documented. They're one of the few (only?) other species where we can directly see the role matriarchs (grandmothers, either past their reproductive ages or even undergoing menopause) have on the development of the youth, and it's been used to explore the role of living post-reproductive ancestors might have on natural selection (which was previously not thought to be affected by it). Maternal grandmothers have even been found to ~spontaneously regain their milk to help nurse infant whales, iirc.
- maxerickson 21d agoHumans commonly have grandchildren in their 40s (less so recently of course). We get fragile in our 70s. I'm wondering about living decades in that fragile state, where cancer happens to be a lot more common.
- ComputerGuru 20d agoThat mostly doesn’t count, since humans still regularly have kids of their own in their forties (so the direct link to natural selection would overshadow any lower-pressure grandmotherly effects), so you’d have to push the window out to the post-menopausal period, which coincides with the period in which various cancers begin to be an issue.