Negative senescence is characterized by a decline in mortality with age after reproductive maturity, generally accompanied by an increase in fecundity. Hamilton (1966) ruled out negative senescence: we adumbrate the deficiencies of his model. We review empirical studies of various plants and...

Humans, and many other species, suffer senescence: mortality increases and fertility declines with adult age. Some species, however, enjoy sustenance: mortality and fertility remain constant. Here we develop simple but general evolutionary-demographic models to explain the conditions that favor...

The evolution of different life history strategies and thus different ageing patterns essentially depends on the nature of the underlying trade-offs between survival and reproduction. To fully comprehend ageing, we need to understand these trade-offs.

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Hamilton quantified the force of selection on an age-specific mutation. Hamilton’s indicators of the age-specific force of selection always decline with age. This result is of profound importance to the theory of the evolution of senescence. Here I derive alternative indicators within...

The ratio (RMR) is the standard measure of sex differentials in mortality. It is commonly known that the RMR was historically small and increased throughout the 20th century. However, numerical properties might account for the trend in the RMR rather than sex differences in risk factors. In this...

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Statistical analysis of a large and unique longitudinal data set demonstrates that late childbearing after age 35 or 40 is significantly associated with survival and healthy survival among very old Chinese women and men. The association is stronger in oldest-old women than men. The estimates are...

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