4 ms·

Surprised to hear that they can live for 30 years. Must be the tuberous diet! See also: http://www.nature.com/news/simple-molecule-prevents-mole-rats-from-ge

Surprised to hear that they can live for 30 years. Must be the tuberous diet! See also: http://www.nature.com/news/simple-molecule-prevents-mole-rats-from-getting-cancer-1.13236 http://www.nature.com/news/simple-molecule-prevents-mole-rat... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22961694 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22961694 http://www.damninteresting.com/the-mole-rat-prophecies/ http://www.damninteresting.com/the-mole-rat-prophecies/

kiba 13y ago
These factors mean the mortality of naked mole rats does not appear to increase with age, allowing them to evolve genes for longevity, Prof Buffenstein told the BBC. Does that mean that they can live forever barring physical trauma?
- flog 13y ago
  I think that's true for some jellyfish and lobsters too
  - andyjohnson0 13y ago
    For lobsters, that's still a matter for debate. See [1] and [2]. Some animals just do live a long time though. A clam believed to be 405 years old was found in waters off Iceland in 2007 [3]. I'm not a marine biologist, but I suspect that an absence of predators may be relevant. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity [2] http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-the-right-circumstances-can-lobsters-live-indefinitely http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-the-r... [3] http://phys.org/news112870855.html http://phys.org/news112870855.html
- masklinn 13y ago
  > Does that mean that they can live forever barring physical trauma? Doesn't seem to be the case, they have a very long (for rodents — it is the longest-lived rodent known — and even more so at their size: they're between mice and rats and live 3 times as long as capybaras) lifespan and significant aging seems to occur only at the very end of that lifespan, but they're not immortal as they also die in lab settings.

kiba 13y ago

These factors mean the mortality of naked mole rats does not appear to increase with age, allowing them to evolve genes for longevity, Prof Buffenstein told the BBC. Does that mean that they can live forever barring physical trauma?

flog 13y ago
I think that's true for some jellyfish and lobsters too
- andyjohnson0 13y ago
  For lobsters, that's still a matter for debate. See [1] and [2]. Some animals just do live a long time though. A clam believed to be 405 years old was found in waters off Iceland in 2007 [3]. I'm not a marine biologist, but I suspect that an absence of predators may be relevant. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobster#Longevity [2] http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-the-right-circumstances-can-lobsters-live-indefinitely http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8520/under-the-r... [3] http://phys.org/news112870855.html http://phys.org/news112870855.html
masklinn 13y ago
> Does that mean that they can live forever barring physical trauma? Doesn't seem to be the case, they have a very long (for rodents — it is the longest-lived rodent known — and even more so at their size: they're between mice and rats and live 3 times as long as capybaras) lifespan and significant aging seems to occur only at the very end of that lifespan, but they're not immortal as they also die in lab settings.