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Science 16 October 1992:
Vol. 258. no. 5081, pp. 457 - 461
DOI: 10.1126/science.1411540
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Articles

Science, Vol 258, Issue 5081, 457-461
Copyright © 1992 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Slowing of mortality rates at older ages in large medfly cohorts

Carey JR, P Liedo, D Orozco, and JW Vaupel

Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis 95616.

It is generally assumed for most species that mortality rates increase monotonically at advanced ages. Mortality rates were found to level off and decrease at older ages in a population of 1.2 million medflies maintained in cages of 7,200 and in a group of approximately 48,000 adults maintained in solitary confinement. Thus, life expectancy in older individuals increased rather than decreased with age. These results cast doubt on several central concepts in gerontology and the biology of aging: (i) that senescence can be characterized by an increase in age-specific mortality, (ii) that the basic pattern of mortality in nearly all species follows the same unitary pattern at older ages, and (iii) that species have absolute life-span limits.


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