That’s probably not a very reliable proxy for age estimation though (for reasons alluded to by sampo, and simply because telomere length varies across individua

That’s probably not a very reliable proxy for age estimation though (for reasons alluded to by sampo, and simply because telomere length varies across individuals regardless of age). It’s probably much easier and more reliable to measure the accumulation of single-base mutations (SNPs): DNA repair is faulty and such mutations accumulate with age. By comparing the genetic material of several cells across a sample this can be estimated.