Lessons from the Long-Lived Lemur

For millions of years, lemurs, the ancient relatives of monkeys, apes and humans, have evolved in isolation on the island of Madagascar. The Duke Lemur Center (Duke University; North Carolina, USA) is home to nearly 250 lemurs representing 21 species. Sarah Zehr and colleagues reviewed over 50 years of medical records on hundreds of dwarf lemurs and three other lemur species at the Duke Lemur Center for clues to their exceptional longevity.  Whereas  conventional wisdom in longevity research is that smaller species live shorter lives than larger ones, the team found an exception to this pattern: dwarf lemurs are able to evoke a self-hibernation state that thereby enables them to live up to ten years longer than their non-hibernating cousins.  Hibernating dwarf lemurs can reduce their heart rate from 200 to eight beats per minute. Breathing slows, and the animals’ internal thermostat shuts down. Instead of maintaining a steady body temperature, they warm up and cool down with the outside air.  Hibernating lemurs not only live longer, they also stay healthier. The researchers observed that while non-hibernators are able to reproduce for roughly six years after they reach maturity, hibernators continue to have kids for up to 14 years after maturity.