These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Adaptive prolonged postreproductive life span in killer whales.
    Author: Foster EA, Franks DW, Mazzi S, Darden SK, Balcomb KC, Ford JK, Croft DP.
    Journal: Science; 2012 Sep 14; 337(6100):1313. PubMed ID: 22984064.
    Abstract:
    Prolonged life after reproduction is difficult to explain evolutionarily unless it arises as a physiological side effect of increased longevity or it benefits related individuals (i.e., increases inclusive fitness). There is little evidence that postreproductive life spans are adaptive in nonhuman animals. By using multigenerational records for two killer whale (Orcinus orca) populations in which females can live for decades after their final parturition, we show that postreproductive mothers increase the survival of offspring, particularly their older male offspring. This finding may explain why female killer whales have evolved the longest postreproductive life span of all nonhuman animals.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]