鲸鱼祖母与知识有关妇女生殖份生物上限科学美国人sa science.pdfVIP

WhaleGrandmasLongevityLinkedtoKnowledge

“鲸鱼”长寿与其掌握的生物学知识有关

Womenhaveabiologicalcapontheirreproductiveyears.Andfroman

evolutionarystandpointresearchershavelongwonderedwhyhumanfemale

longevityextendswellpastfertility.Otherthanhumans,onlyshort-finned

pilotwhalesandkillerwhaleslivethreeormoredecadesaftermenopause,

someevenreachingtheir90s.Malewhales,whicharefarlesslikelytobe

followedbygroup-matesthanarefemales,seldomsurvivepast50.

女性的期都有一个生物上限。从进化角度来看，研究人员一直好奇：为何人类女性过

了期依然很长。除了人类，只有短鳍领航鲸和虎鲸能在更年期过后仍活30多年

或者更久，有些甚至能活到90多岁。不像雌鲸那样，雄鲸团体大部分较短且很少能

活过50岁。

Nowastudyofkillerwhalesofferssomecluesaboutwhyevolutionmayhave

selectedforsuchlonglife:olderfemaleshaveaccruedwhatthestudyauthors

call“repositoriesofecologicalknowledge,”thatcanhelptheirentiregroup

survive.

目前有关虎鲸的一项研究就“为何在进化中雌性得到了更长的”这一问题提供了一些线

索：年老的雌性形成了研究人员口中的“生态学知识储藏库”——而这能够帮助它们延长整

体的。

Theresearcheraminedmorethan750hoursofkillerwhale.They

sawthatolder,wizenedfemalesweretheindividualsmostlikelytolead

youngerwhalestosalmonfeedinggrounds,especiallyduringles.The

studyisinthejournalCurrentBiology.

研究人员了750多个小时的虎鲸。他们发现，那些年老且消瘦的雌鲸更易于带领

较年轻的鲸鱼去鲑鱼觅食场，尤其是在时期。该研究于《当物学》。

Theworkprovidesthefirstevidencethattheadvantageconferredviathe

knowledgeheldbyelderlyfemalewhalesmaybebehindtheadaptationfor

theirpost-fertilitylongevity.Inhumans,ananalogouplanationforpost-

menopausallongevityispartofwhat’scalled“thegrandmothereffect,”the

constellationofattributesthatmakeolderwomenespeciallyvaluabletothe

community.Whalegrandmasappeartobehighlyvaluab