ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2021
Senescence: why and where selection gradients might not decline with age.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Meta-analysis shows no consistent evidence for senescence in ejaculate traits across animals.Nature communications · 2024Pooled it
- Aging is not a disease: an evolutionary and comparative biological reappraisal.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Age-dependent decline in sperm quality and function in a naturally short-lived vertebrate.BMC ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- More social species live longer, have longer generation times and longer reproductive windows.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Agelessness is possible under the disposable soma theory but system complexity makes it unlikely.Journal of theoretical biology · 2024Article
- The evolution of ageing: classic theories and emerging ideas.Biogerontology · 2024Review
- Senescence evolution under the catastrophic accumulation of deleterious mutations.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- The magnitude of selection on growth varies among years and increases under warming conditions in a subarctic seabird.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Directional selection coupled with kin selection favors the establishment of senescence.BMC biology · 2023Article
- Increased offspring provisioning by large female fish and consequences for reproductive efficiency.Ecology and evolution · 2023Article
- Expanding evolutionary theories of ageing to better account for symbioses and interactions throughout the Web of Life.Ageing research reviews · 2023Review
- MOSAIC - A Unified Trait Database to Complement Structured Population Models.Scientific data · 2023Article
- Coming of age: Annual onset of coral reproduction is determined by age rather than size.iScience · 2023Article
- Measuring the shape of mortality across animals and plants: Alternatives toEcology and evolution · 2023Article
- Does symmetry preclude the evolution of senescence? A comment on Pen and Flatt 2021.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Patterns and consequences of age-linked change in local relatedness in animal societies.Nature ecology & evolution · 2022Article
- Separating the effects of paternal age and mating history: Evidence for sex-specific paternal effect in eastern mosquitofish.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Reply to: Senescence, trait parameterization and (st)age-specific forces of selection.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Senescence, trait parameterization and (st)age-specific forces of selection.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Social ageing: exploring the drivers of late-life changes in social behaviour in mammals.Biology letters · 2022Review
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Patterns of ageing across the tree of life are much more diverse than previously thought. Yet, we still do not adequately understand how, why and where across the tree of life a particular pattern of ageing will evolve. An ability to predict ageing patterns requires a firmer understanding of how and why different ecological and evolutionary factors alter the sensitivity of fitness to age-related changes in mortality and reproduction. From this understanding, we can ask why and where selection gradients might not decline with age. Here, we begin by summarizing the recent breadth of literature that is unearthing, empirically and theoretically, the mechanisms that drive variation in patters of senescence. We focus on the relevance of two key parameters, population structure and reproductive value, as key to understanding selection gradients, and therefore senescence. We discuss how growth form, individual trade-offs, stage structure and social interactions may all facilitate differing distributions of these two key parameters than those predicted by classical theory. We argue that these four key aspects can help us understand why patterns of negligible and negative senescence can actually be explained under the same evolutionary framework as classical senescence.
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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.