question: What allows humans to live so long compared to most other animals?
comment: It's complicated, and we don't really have a definitive answer yet. But the best answer right now has to do with how DNA repairs itself. All animal cells are constantly being copied and replaced with new ones, but when you make a copy of a copy of a copy, the DNA starts to break down. How many times an animal's cells can copy themselves without making defective ones (or, if defective cells are made, the body's ability to fix/destroy them) will tell you how fast the animal ages. That's what aging is, really. The body's healing process being imperfect.
passages: BULLET::::- The tuatara, a lizard-like reptile native to New Zealand, can live well over 100 years. Henry, a tuatara at the Southland Museum in New Zealand, mated for the first time at the estimated age of 111 years in 2009 with an 80-year-old female and fathered 11 baby tuatara.
   When examining the body-size vs. lifespan relationship, one also observes that predatory mammals tend to live longer than prey mammals in a controlled environment, such as a zoo or nature reserve. The explanation for the long lifespans of primates (such as humans, monkeys, and apes) relative to body size is that their intelligence, and they would have a lower intrinsic mortality.
  
  Section::::Diseases.
  
  Section::::Diseases.:Progeria.
   Section::::Mortality-rate plateaus.:Human late life.
   Section::::In animals.
  
  Small animals such as birds and squirrels rarely live to their maximum life span, usually dying of accidents, disease or predation.
  
  The maximum life span of most species is documented in the Anage repository.
  
  Maximum life span is usually longer for species that are larger or have effective defenses against predation, such as bird flight, chemical defenses or living in social groups.
  
  The differences in life span between species demonstrate the role of genetics in determining maximum life span ("rate of aging"). The records (in years) are these:
  
  BULLET::::- for common house mouse, 4
   Biodemographic studies found that even genetically identical laboratory animals kept in constant environment have very different lengths of life, suggesting a crucial role of chance and early-life developmental noise in longevity determination. This leads to new approaches in understanding causes of exceptional human longevity.
   BULLET::::- Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise living on the island of Saint Helena, is reported to be about years old, and may, therefore, be the oldest currently living terrestrial animal if the claim is true.
  
  BULLET::::- Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise, died at the age of 175 years in June 2006.
  
  BULLET::::- Timothy, a spur-thighed tortoise, born in Turkey died at an age of 165 years in 3 April 2004 in the UK.
   BULLET::::- Whales (bowhead whale) ("Balaena mysticetus" about 200 years) Although this idea was unproven for a time, recent research has indicated that bowhead whales recently killed still had harpoons in their bodies from about 1890, which, along with analysis of amino acids, has indicated a maximum life span, stated as "the 211 year-old bowhead could have been from 177 to 245 years old".
   As discussed above, on an individual basis, a number of factors correlate with a longer life. Factors that are associated with variations in life expectancy include family history, marital status, economic status, physique, exercise, diet, drug use including smoking and alcohol consumption, disposition, education, environment, sleep, climate, and health care.
  
  Section::::Healthy life expectancy.
   BULLET::::- for Brown rat, 3.8
  
  BULLET::::- for dogs, 29 (See List of oldest dogs)
  
  BULLET::::- for cats, 38 (See List of oldest cats)
  
  BULLET::::- for polar bears, 42 (Debby)
  
  BULLET::::- for horses, 62
  
  BULLET::::- for Asian elephants, 86
  
  The longest-lived vertebrates have been variously described as
  
  BULLET::::- Large parrots (macaws and cockatoos can live up to 80–100 years in captivity)
  
  BULLET::::- Koi (a Japanese species of fish, allegedly living up to 200 years, though generally not exceeding 50 – a specimen named Hanako was reportedly 226 years old upon her death)
  
  BULLET::::- Tortoises (Galápagos tortoise) (190 years)
   BULLET::::- Nonja, a Sumatran orangutan, died at the age of 55 years in December 2007. She was claimed to be the oldest-living orangutan of her species.
  
  BULLET::::- The oldest bear on record was Andreas, a European brown bear, living in the ARCTUROS bear sanctuary in northern Greece. He was at least 50 years old at the time of his death.
  
  BULLET::::- A wild-born black rhino named Elly was the oldest in North America at an estimated 45 years of age, and resided in California's San Francisco Zoo from April 1974 until passing in May 2017.
   BULLET::::- The oldest living spider, named Number 16 by researchers, was a 43-year-old female "Gaius villosus" armored trapdoor spider, at the North Bungulla Reserve, Tammin, Western Australia.
  
  BULLET::::- Debby, the polar bear, an inhabitant of the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Canada, was the oldest polar bear and third-oldest bear species on record when she died in 2008, at the age of 42 years.
  
  BULLET::::- The oldest bat recorded, a Brandt's bat, is at least 41 years old.
   The first modern theory of mammal ageing was formulated by Peter Medawar in 1952. This theory formed in the previous decade with J. B. S. Haldane and his selection shadow concept. Their idea was that ageing was a matter of neglect, as nature is a highly competitive place. Almost all animals die in the wild from predators, disease, or accidents, which lowers the average age of death. Therefore, there is not much reason why the body should remain fit for the long haul because selection pressure is low for traits that would maintain viability past the time when most animals would have died anyway.
   BULLET::::- Global Agewatch has the latest internationally comparable statistics on life expectancy from 195 countries.
  
  BULLET::::- Rank Order—Life expectancy at birth from the CIA's World Factbook.
  
  BULLET::::- CDC year-by-year life expectancy figures for USA from the USA Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
  
  BULLET::::- Life expectancy in Roman times from the University of Texas.
  
  BULLET::::- Animal lifespans: Animal Lifespans from Tesarta Online (Internet Archive); The Life Span of Animals from Dr Bob's All Creatures Site.
   BULLET::::- A comparison of 7 non-primate mammals (mouse, hamster, rat, guinea-pig, rabbit, pig and cow) showed that the rate of mitochondrial superoxide and hydrogen peroxide production in heart and kidney were inversely correlated with maximum life span
  
  BULLET::::- A study of 8 non-primate mammals showed an inverse correlation between maximum life span and oxidative damage to mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) in heart & brain
  
  BULLET::::- A study of several species of mammals and a bird (pigeon) indicated a linear relationship between oxidative damage to protein and maximum life span
   Life expectancy increases with age as the individual survives the higher mortality rates associated with childhood. For instance, the table above listed the life expectancy at birth among 13th-century English nobles at 30. Having survived until the age of 21, a male member of the English aristocracy in this period could expect to live:
  
  BULLET::::- 1200–1300: to age 64
  
  BULLET::::- 1300–1400: to age 45 (because of the bubonic plague)
  
  BULLET::::- 1400–1500: to age 69
  
  BULLET::::- 1500–1550: to age 71
  
  In a similar way, the life expectancy of scholars in the Medieval Islamic world was 59–84.3 years.
   Extrinsic mortality is implicit in both classical theories of aging and non-classical studies of aging. In both cases, its existence causes a selective pressure for either longer lifespans and later reproductive periods or shorter lifespans and earlier reproductive periods.
  
  Classical theories of aging include:
  
  BULLET::::- Mutation Accumulation Theory of Aging - Because extrinsic mortality is so high in the natural world, few animals survive to old age. As a result, random harmful germ line mutations accumulate with little to no selective disadvantage.
   BULLET::::- Some koi fish have reportedly lived more than 200 years, the oldest being Hanako, which some claim died at an age of 226 years on July 7, 1977, but this age estimate is based on a scale estimate and is inadequate.
  
  BULLET::::- Some confirmed sources estimate bowhead whales to have lived at least to 211 years of age, making them the oldest mammals.
  
  BULLET::::- Rougheye rockfish can reach an age of 205 years.
  
  BULLET::::- Specimens of the Red Sea urchin "Strongylocentrotus franciscanus" have been found to be over 200 years old.
   BULLET::::- "Lamellibrachia luymesi", a deep-sea cold-seep tubeworm, is estimated to reach ages of over 250 years based on a model of its growth rates.
  
  BULLET::::- A bowhead whale killed in a hunt was found to be approximately 211 years old (possibly up to 245 years old), the longest-lived mammal known.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Actuarial science
  
  BULLET::::- Aging
  
  BULLET::::- Aging brain
  
  BULLET::::- Alliance for Aging Research
  
  BULLET::::- Anti-aging movement
  
  BULLET::::- Biodemography
  
  BULLET::::- Biodemography of human longevity
  
  BULLET::::- Calico (company)
  
  BULLET::::- Centenarian
  
  BULLET::::- DNA damage theory of aging
  
  BULLET::::- Genetics of aging
  
  BULLET::::- Gerontology Research Group
  
  BULLET::::- Hayflick limit
  
  BULLET::::- Indefinite lifespan
   Various species of plants and animals, including humans, have different lifespans. Evolutionary theory states that organisms that, by virtue of their defenses or lifestyle, live for long periods and avoid accidents, disease, predation, etc. are likely to have genes that code for slow aging, which often translates to good cellular repair. One theory is that if predation or accidental deaths prevent most individuals from living to an old age, there will be less natural selection to increase the intrinsic life span. That finding was supported in a classic study of opossums by Austad; however, the opposite relationship was found in an equally prominent study of guppies by Reznick.
   BULLET::::- Many sub-families of the marine fish Oreosomatidae, including the "Allocyttus", "Neocyttus", and "Pseudocyttus" (collectively referred to as the Oreos) have been reported to live up to 170 years, based on otolith-increment estimates and radiometric dating
  
  BULLET::::- The deepsea hydrocarbon seep tubeworm "Lamellibrachia luymesi" (Annelida, Polychaeta) lives for more than 170 years.
  
  BULLET::::- Geoduck, a species of saltwater clam native to the Puget Sound, have been known to live more than 160 years.
   BULLET::::- There is a direct correlation between DNA repair and maximum life span for mammalian species
  
  BULLET::::- Drosophila (fruit-flies) bred for 15 generations by only using eggs that were laid toward the end of reproductive life achieved maximum life spans 30% greater than that of controls
  
  BULLET::::- Overexpression of the enzyme which synthesizes glutathione in long-lived transgenic "Drosophila" (fruit-flies) extended maximum lifespan by nearly 50%
   BULLET::::- Aubrey de Grey – English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is perhaps best known for his view that human beings could, in theory, live to lifespans far in excess of that which any authenticated cases have lived to today.
   In modern human populations, life expectancy has increased greatly due to advances in medicine lowering death in childbirth and preventing fatal childhood infections. This has led to a shift in the distribution of death from younger to older people, and was accompanied by a transition from extrinsic factors in death to a mixture of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Because extrinsic mortality factors have become relatively unimportant in the cause of death in most developed countries, an increasing proportion of the population of these countries is composed of older people beyond the period of reproduction and grand-parenting. Therefore, the reduction of extrinsic mortality factors in developed human populations has contributed to the ability of people to live longer than they can reproduce. However, it is important to note that the ability of people to live longer than they can reproduce is potentially attributed to the grandmother hypothesis, which states that menopause allows older women to provide alloparental care for grandchildren in order to increase their fitness.
   While the data required are easily identified in the case of humans, the computation of life expectancy of industrial products and wild animals involves more indirect techniques. The life expectancy and demography of wild animals are often estimated by capturing, marking, and recapturing them. The life of a product, more often termed shelf life, is also computed using similar methods. In the case of long-lived components, such as those used in critical applications: in aircraft, methods like accelerated aging are used to model the life expectancy of a component.
   Some argue that shorter male life expectancy is merely another manifestation of the general rule, seen in all mammal species, that larger (size) individuals (within a species) tend, on average, to have shorter lives. This biological difference occurs because women have more resistance to infections and degenerative diseases.
  