Research report 2025 - Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Why females live longer than males
Authors
Johanna Stärk, Fernando Colchero
Departments
Abteilung für Verhalten und Evolution von Primaten, Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig
Summary
Why women outlive men has been a long-standing puzzle. In a comparative analysis, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology found that the female survival advantage is common across mammals but reversed in birds, where males tend to live longer. These differences seem to be shaped by characteristics of sex chromosomes as well as by adaptive trade-offs in sexual selection.
