DESCRIPTION: (adapted from the application): Although humans live some of the absolute longest documented lives of any mammal, they are not unique in having unusually long lives for body size. Humans, as primates, are heirs to long relative life spans (life span exceeding that predicted by body size) and only when human life spans reach 85-100 years do they significantly exceed primate expectations. To understand the evolution of relatively long lives in humans they must be situated in a more general framework of species potentias for prolonged life span. Interspecific comparisons provide a method for observing historical processes influencing life span over an evolutionary time scale. This project has 3 specific aims of database development and descriptive analyses. First, develop a taxonomically broad database including maximum reported life spans, and life history and socioecological characteristics of species. This database also will allow description of the distribution of variability in patterns of life span across broad phylogenetic groups. Second, conduct phylogenetically, sensitive correlational analyses of sociological and ecological characteristics associated with prolonged relative life spans vertebrates. Analyses of the associations of socio-ecological characteristics with relatively long life spans while controlling for phylogenetic relatedness will provide an evolutionary context in which to model the evolution of longevity in Homo sapiens. The size and breadth of the database will facilitate identification of socioecological correlations with relatively small effect sizes. Results using_the broadly available "maximum reported life span" will be compared with results from sub samples of species for which life table quality data is available. Third, place the evolution of prolonged human life span in the context of other species exhibiting prolonged relative life spans. Specifically, estimate the extent to which longevity is "unusually prolonged" relative to phlogenetic relatives (hominids; primates; mammals; homeothermic vertebrates) and determine the extent to which the social and ecological correlates of longevity in other taxa are replicated or differ in the evolution of human longevity.