Estimation of potential maximum longevity in mammals.-- For nearly 50 years, thanks to the research initiated by Sacher (1959, 1975; Staffeldt and Sacher 1974), a close relationship has been known in extant mammals, including primates, between maximum potential longevity (L) and the biometric characters of brain weight (E) and body weight (P) (Cutler 1975, Hofman 1993; for a review see: Hofman 1993, Hawkes 2006). This relationship is based on the biological quasi-continuum between related species, which are connected by their phylogenies, and the many similarities they generate. Used as an estimator of L for fossil hominins, this relationship has produced values of 52, 78, 93 and 94 years for Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens sapiens (Hss), respectively, as well as age at sexual maturity taken as one fifth of L, i.e., 12-13, 13-14, 18-19 and 18-19 years respectively (Sacher 1975, Cutler 1975). These estimates were incorporated into palaeodemography 35 years ago, as parameters influencing the shape of the death distribution of fossil hominins (Bocquet and Masset 1977, 1982; Bocquet-Appel 1982). Updated estimates of L, from biometric (estimated) data in more recent literature 1 , using the Hofman regression (1993) 2 , have produced 111.7 and 111.2 years for Neanderthals and Hss respectively, i.e. identical figures between the two metapopulations and similar to those of Sacher (1975) and Cutler (1975). These estimates also suggest that other important determinants of life history, such as age at menarche or duration of gestation, were similar between Neanderthals and Hss, which allows them to be set within a common demographic frame.
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