ArticleBiogerontology2017
Senescence is not inevitable.
Article in Biogerontology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Evolution of Senescence by Damage Accumulation That Accelerates With Age Throughout an Organism's Lifespan.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Axolotls retain fertility throughout lifespan.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Interaction Between Age and Individual Heterogeneity Shapes Breeding Probability in a Long-Lived Marine Ectotherm.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Maternal effect senescence and caloric restriction interact to affect fitness through changes in life history timing.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- What does not kill you makes you stronger? Effects of paternal age at conception on fathers and sons.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2024Article
- Article
- Editorial: Mechanisms and Pathways Contributing to the Diversity of Aging Across the Tree of Life.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2022Article
- Senescence: why and where selection gradients might not decline with age.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Aging as a consequence of selection to reduce the environmental risk of dying.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Article
- Longevity and the drift barrier: Bridging the gap between Medawar and Hamilton.Evolution letters · 2020Article
- Mechanisms of Lifespan Regulation by Calorie Restriction and Intermittent Fasting in Model Organisms.Nutrients · 2020Review
- Slow life-history strategies are associated with negligible actuarial senescence in western Palaearctic salamanders.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Evolution favours aging in populations with assortative mating and in sexually dimorphic populations.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- The importance of education for understanding variability of dementia onset in the United States.Demographic researchArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Senescence, the physiological deterioration resulting in an increase in mortality and decline in fertility with age, is widespread in the animal kingdom and has often been regarded as an inescapable feature of all organisms. This essay briefly describes the history of the evolutionary theoretical ideas on senescence. The canonical evolutionary theories suggest that increasing mortality and decreasing fertility should be ubiquitous. However, increasing empirical data demonstrates that senescence may not be as universal a feature of life as once thought and that a diversity of demographic trajectories exists. These empirical observations support theoretical work indicating that a wide range of mortality and fertility trajectories is indeed possible, including senescence, negligible senescence and even negative senescence (improvement). Although many mysteries remain in the field of biogerontology, it is clear that senescence is not inevitable.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.