Human

Maximum longevity: 122.5 years (captivity) Observations: Succinctly, we humans age gradually. Although women tend to outlive men and there are gender differences in age-related pathologies, overall there are probably no differences between the sexes in terms of rate of ageing. Likewise, populations in different environments do not appear to greatly differ in rate of ageing even though they can differ on specific age-related diseases. Human mortality rates begin to exponentially increase after about age 30. The body's functional decline, however, starts after the sexual peak, roughly at age 19, and perhaps some functions decline even earlier in life (Leonard Hayflick 1994). A peculiar phenomena, though not unique of humans, is that the MRDT increases after about age 65. This has been suggested to be a statistical effect rather than any unknown biological process (Rossolini and Piantanelli 2001).+p Jean Calment is recorded as the longest-lived human being (Michel Allard 1998). Compared to other species, of course, the maximum longevity of humans is based on a considerably larger sample. Therefore, it has been argued that, for comparative purposes, it is more adequate to use as human maximum longevity 90 or 100 years (Lorenzini et al. 2005).+p The average human life expectancy worldwide is 66 years, ranging from 39 years in Zambia to 82 years in Japan. Among hunter-gatherers, the average life expectancy was probably around 30 years (Gurven and Kaplan 2007).