Why do animals have such different lifespans? - Joao Pedro de Magalhaes 

If you want to keep exploring fascinating facts from the animal kingdom, check out this playlist: bit.ly/2I7F48x

I wish they had talked about how crazy bird life expectancies are. Little birds only live 2-4 years but parrots like cockatoos have a life expectancy of 80-100 years. It's really interesting

This guys voice is the best, if he can do every educational video ever that would be great.

One day people will be like " ONLY 71 YEARS?!" "THAT'S SO SHORT!"

When the girl in the animation pulls her leg back at the end, i briefly thought she was going to kick the guy in the nuts 😭

feels kind of depressing knowing I will start degenerating in a few years.

"we are the only species on earth to take control over our natural fate " wow that's deep

Me when i see ted new video i havent seen before : *its time to learn everything and nothing at the same time*

if human can live up to 400 years, the world will end way more quickly.

But what if we could engineer our telomeres so that they don't get shorter as we age?

You forgot the *Legends* *Legends* _never die._

This is really nice. I was hoping you guys can do a video on why certain dog breeds live longer than others!

3:06 Swiper no swiping!!!

I love how the guys shirt at the end said *notification squad*

2:34 I don’t know why, but that freaked me out.

Isn’t it weird that dying at age 50 is young, but you are arguably old at age 50?

lol those elephants are cute, wiggling their trunks back and forth xD

You know...this gives an added perspective to existentialism. Knowing that a clam/shell creature will outlive me really makes me wonder why I exist at all. Would it be better if I was a clam/shell? Maybe

0:33 Salmon: Imma speed run that part.

The only thing I learned from this is why Peter griffin lives in Quahog and drinks at the drunken clam

You missed an extremely important fact, and got another one completely backwards. Experiments on a fly with an life expectancy of 24 hours pushed that to 72 hours simply by delaying the point of reproduction. It was hypothesized that the individual is useless to nature once reproduction has been carried out. In the case of the Fly, they are programmed to die shortly after reproduction, but when this is consistently delayed the epigenetic markers pushed that out to ensure that the next generation is able to survive long enough to reproduce. In this way, the mouse doesn't reproduce fast because it has a short life span - it has a short life span because it reproduces fast. Nature has selected for fast reproducing mice because those who wait have a higher likelihood of being eaten. While this may sound like a case of fast reproduction in response to early death, keep in mind that we are talking about natural death - aging - being influenced by being killed via outside forces. Similar trends are observable in recorded human history. In eras and locations where war and famine had a higher tendency to kill people at a young age, reproduction occurred even younger, which in turn sped up the rate of sexual maturity. It is even biologically possible for a human of just a few years old to give birth to a health baby, as has actually happened. Hypothetically speaking, if some selective pressure pushed for that, humans could rapidly change to have the lifespan of mice. Of course, with modern humans, the push for education has resulted in cultural delays on reproduction with the age of sexual consent being pushed up to a higher age faster than nature can keep up. This has resulted in a teen pregnancy statistic - something humans have never even cared about before - which is still on average higher than the age humans used to reproduce on average. There are still outliers though, like the 12 year old girl who has a baby who herself was born when her mother was 12 making the youngest grandmother in the UK, but as a whole, despite the biological push to reproduce at a younger age than culture allows, humans are consciously choosing to wait, with an even larger population waiting until their 30's and 40's to have children than ever before. All of this tells us that the gradually increasing lifespan has more to do with epigenetics than modern medical science. Not that modern medical science isn't also playing a role, but it's actually a long term negative. Or rather it will be until human gene therapy can tackle the resulting issues. You see, many humans have genetic defects that are easier to pass on when modern medical science helps them to live to the point of sexual maturity. Most people think of the age related conditions, but I argue that's a smaller issue since it's connected to aging - not age. As the rate of human aging adjusts these conditions should, at least in principle, change the age at which they appear. After so many generations of epigenetic stability, the process eventually becomes hard coded. People think of random mutation when they think of evolution, but that's rarely the cast. Most mutations tend to be harmful. Hard coding of an epigenetic change happens because the epigenome changes what genes are being coded and so when a mutation happens in a non coded region it being impossible to change back without another mutation. A good example of this is the teeth of a chicken, who still have the genes for sharp teeth, but can no longer escape from the egg when an epigenetic change otherwise results in the formation of teeth since another important gene is broken. A mutation can bring it back, but only if the mutation coincides with the epigenetic change. To those who doubt how important the epigenome is to evolution, consider this: The placenta is viral. Or rather, the ancestor of all mammals was infected with a retrovirus at the point of conception which caused the virus to spread evenly to all cells (the only way to pass a virus on reproductively as part of the species genome) and the epigenome later on figured out how to turn the virus genes on and off at precise times to create the placenta. In fact, a fair chunk of human DNA is viral in origin, and all of which controlled epigenetically. You simply cannot form a factual basis for explaining life without looking at this system. It's the real time adaptation level that really enables species to adapt to their environment.

"I want to live longer" then suddenly plans to live in antarctica

This has interested me for a long time. As I heard that the average lifespan for some animals was different. It is really interesting how whales can live on average for 200 years. I really liked the part where you said "We are the only species on earth to take control over our natural fate ". Imagine if one day we will be able to make average life even longer like 150 years.

People: queen Elizabeth is really old Quahog clam: hold my ocean juice

I could listen to this guys voice forever...

I wonder if the sun has anything to do with it. Some of those older living animals under the sea probably don't get as much exposure to the sun.

Great video! I love the little heartbeat animations hinting at the importance of the absolute number of them during lifespans.

Welcome to another episode of "I never searched for this video but wow, interesting it made me curious too and now I'm binge-watching TED-Ed videos" I love TED so much

Thank you for sharing everything you know TED-Ed

As an aside, I love the colors and textures in this animation!

No the oldest animal was a clam called Mia which was 561 years but scientists accidentally killed it

pls do a video on the topic: what would we look like on different planets

I love this person's voice. I think half of the reason why I love this channel is because of the narration.

Great work!!! Love these videos, very educational. 10/10!

I was under the impression the longest living mammal was the Greenland shark which currently theres one still alive who is over 500 years old.

These videos answer questions I never knew I had

I love these videos. they are really interesting and well said

Honestly wtf do you do for 200 years in the sea?? Edit: wait never mind 400 years!!

This is one of the few educational videos that i wanted longer. Like the specifics of the other species

Ur voice is so calming even at the end when u made it sound so sad that we cant live as far as the .....thingy and other thingys

I love how ted eds sound so clear and calm.

But also, why does small dogs usually live longer than bigger dogs?

Ah thats one of the first piece I've ever learned! Great job on the nuances!

Wow.. I've always taken the fact of different lifespan as granted and the title sure caught my attention!

Clear information, thank you.

Never thought about it in my entire life until my 6y old asked me this question today. I couldn't answer and the Google showed this video. Very informative and well explained. Thanks

I think it comes down to the length of time a species can spend in an optimal environment. Temperature, food availability, access to water, natural threats, and exposure to toxins are just some of the main components that factor into the lifespan of an organism

Moral of the story: get rid of your heart and metabolism to live forever. Wait

2:17 can we talk about the beautiful movement of the animals?

I remember reading about a scientific study of various differently-sized mammals which concluded that most, if not all, mammals have a life span of around 800 million heartbeats, regardless of the size of the animal.

Amazing knowledge!!! Thank you!

haha the baby elephant is pretty cute. The overall animation is cute. Props to Sharon!

i wish I was a giant, living under ice sheets

what about the turritopsis dornhii? its a jelly fish that has the ability to live forever. it goes through a process known as transdifferentiation, where after sexual maturity, it can take its old cells and transform them to younger cells in its life cycle. and the only way it can die is if it is eaten, which is slightly unlikely due to the fact that its tentacles can sting other predators.

Excellent video. And I love the fact that you always credit the name of the writer on the title.

I love the elephants nose moving back and forth!

I just found out everyone in my family lives to be at least 90. Great.

This is one of those times when I'm proud to be human And then I remember how horrible we are to everything around us, that thought goes away

oh man....its soo amazing to think in this direction. this makes me be more curious to things around me

I want to watch more and learn more. It is a very good studying material and it inspires me a lot. Thank you very much

0:57 They look like eyes!

Does that mean that in colder climate humans live longer too? And if to move there from a warmer place, would I have the extra years?

I like the part at the end, the little illusion at controling a little our position over the grand scheme of things

Very interesting! I’ve always wondered how this worked :)

Hi TED-Ed! I've always wondered, why do smaller breeds of dog generally live MUCH longer than the larger breeds? For example, some small terrier & toy breeds can live into their mid to late teens; but Great Danes are lucky if they make it to just 10. Is it because we humans have messed around with trying to breed-in certain physical traits, sometimes resulting in breeding close relatives together, thus causing major inherited conditions & diseases that limit their lifespans? Cheers for any answers!

*When schools in session:* doesn't wanna watch ted videos when asked to by professors *summer vacation:* binge watches ted/educational videos

The similarity between all of these animals is they are ADORABLY animated.

I love your videos always because it can be downloaded thanks @Ted-ed

I wish to live long enough to see human live as one nation

Its a little hard for the average fellow to follow this video. One example being, how does one find out that a species can live for 10,000 years? Certainly they havent logged the life of the same cucumber for that amount of years, thats just silly. So what gives? Where does that information come from? Thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply.

Awwwww look how happy that sharky looks :)

Animals can live longer than they usually do under captivity. I have a yellow canary which has an expected lifespan of 2-3 years in the wild, but it's 8 now and is expected to live up to 15 if domesticated. Many of these animals could probably live even longer if you make the conditions right - healthy food, safety from predators, ideal temperatures .etc.

But in olden days our grandpa is living nearly 100 we are from India you can cross check but nowadays we are getting weak most diseases is occurring in 55 😭.

What about dogs? We care for them, give them nutrition, and yet a dog living to age 20 is a crazy thought. Why is this so?!

Clicked on a ted-ed video, cute baby elephant animation found, never disappoints ...

Also the telomere length and the amount of the enzyme that repairs it after cell division have an impact on aging.

Interesting video! Thank you. One question though, there was mentioned that the animals living in colder places have a slower hart beat which also could be a reason why they live longer. If this is true, could that mean that humans with a slower hart beat can live longer, than humans with a faster hart beat? If not developing illnesses of course. Thank you if anyone answers it!

I've heared that generally most species do have a similar total amount of heartbeats. The difference lies in the fact that the heart of mice beats extremely fast in comparison the the heart of a whale. My question is: Theoretically wouldn't this mean that having a fast heart rate (and maybe also doing much sport which of course also accelerates the beat-rate) mean that these people would die younger than people with a slower heart beat? (sorry if this is a silly question.)

Imagine how long an antarctic glass sponge could live if given proper healthcare.

How fast their heart beats

Very good points. But I just have a question. I hope you can answer this. How can scientists measure the life expectancy of organisms other than observation? How can scientists tell that certain animals live for like 200 years, 400 years, 10 thousand years, etc when we can only live like 71 years? I guess another video regarding this? 😅

Becuase Chuck Noris likes some animals more then others

Oh so thats why stress kills because the beating of your heart

Short but insightful!

And for some animals life is taken too soon #DicksOutForHarambe

Are humans considered large or small animals?

That baby elephant brought me so much joy.

beautiful explanation and amazing content superb

Meh, 80-100 years is good enough for me.

It be nice if dogs would have a life expectancy of 80 to 100 years

I can't stop watching Ted ed

1:53 wow!

The guy's shirt at 3:57! Notification squad! XD

*Lifespan* depends upon the *number of breaths* you take *per minute* Example: *Tortoise* have 4-5 breaths per minute and have age around *400years* while rabbit in wild live for *1-2 years* having *30-60* breaths per minute .

the last part is only the most important!

This makes me wanna live a long healthy life

So what kind of world is the most plausible in the next 100 years? A world controlled by super-intelligent AI, a world controlled by cybernetics humans or a world controlled by mutants?

I wish dogs lived a lot longer.

Great video. Thanks.

it would always amaze me that some things die after a week while some live for 300 years, yet both seem to survive evolution and reproduce.