Species of tortoise with a relatively short lifespan?

[Tom]

Here's a study I found. I didn't read it cuz I really didn't want to lol. I believe it's on reptiles, not just tortoises.

Centenarian tortoises keep their secrets as longevity theories busted

lighthouse.mq.edu.au

This article did nothing to establish tortoise life span. It refuted a few possible hypothesis, but that's it. How is this relevant to subject at hand?

Here is another https://www.the-scientist.com/how-slow-can-you-go-70163

I guess you just have to find the right wording to find the info looking for.

Take the info as you wish. No human can live long enough to do a 100% study. If they could, they would be helping humans live as long as you'd have to live to do the kind of 100% study some people want!

This second article talks about many studies on several types of reptiles, but list no studies on how long tortoise live, no guesses on what their lifespan might be, and certainly no data on tortoise lifespans.

What was the point of posting these articles? They simply prove my original point that is: No one knows how long tortoises live. We know it is a long time, several decades at least, because we all know of many anecdotal examples that demonstrate this.

 

[wellington]

This article did nothing to establish tortoise life span. It refuted a few possible hypothesis, but that's it. How is this relevant to subject at hand?


This second article talks about many studies on several types of reptiles, but list no studies on how long tortoise live, no guesses on what their lifespan might be, and certainly no data on tortoise lifespans.

What was the point of posting these articles? They simply prove my original point that is: No one knows how long tortoises live. We know it is a long time, several decades at least, because we all know of many anecdotal examples that demonstrate this.

Proves nothing! Not for you or for me! It proves that the studies they have done, into many reptiles, they can guestimate the average life span. Have you noticed the span of years listed? There is no way of having any real evidence unless someone starts it and has many someones to continue the study when the first person is dead. Then unless done with all the same exact environments, genetics, etc, etc, it still not 100%.
I tend to believe to a point the estimates given has some science behind it. I happen to believe in science and don't think the numbers are total crap!
So, I will answer my way and you can answer your way and any OP can choose their way.
Agree to disagree.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

Where did these numbers come from? How many animals were tracked and verified for the study that came up with these numbers?

This is just an accumulated account of things I've heard and/or learned over time about the species.
I certainly haven't kept any Redfoot from birth to a natural death. And in my lifetime I'll never have the chance to confirm or deny it first hand since I'm near that age myself.
In that same conglomerate of information, I also read at least once that the Redfoots shorter lifespan may have something to do with its higher fruit and higher protein diet.
(This I wasn't going to mention. Because it was a hypothesis at best)

 

[Tom]

This is just an accumulated account of things I've heard and/or learned over time about the species.
I certainly haven't kept any Redfoot from birth to a natural death. And in my lifetime I'll never have the chance to confirm or deny it first hand since I'm near that age myself.
In that same conglomerate of information, I also read at least once that the Redfoots shorter lifespan may have something to do with its higher fruit and higher protein diet.
(This I wasn't going to mention. Because it was a hypothesis at best)

I keep looking for a definitive answer on this and was hoping you might have found something. I've heard the same sorts of things as you over the decades, but nothing definitive because they live longer than we do. I can call several people to find out the typical lifespan of just about any reptile because so many people have been keeping and breeding so many of them for decades as they live out their lifespans, but not tortoises.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I keep looking for a definitive answer on this and was hoping you might have found something. I've heard the same sorts of things as you over the decades, but nothing definitive because they live longer than we do. I can call several people to find out the typical lifespan of just about any reptile because so many people have been keeping and breeding so many of them for decades as they live out their lifespans, but not tortoises.

Chameleons I can say for sure. Not my Redfoot

 

[Tom]

Chameleons I can say for sure. Not my Redfoot

Exactly.

 

[ALICE_in_Wonderland]

No one knows the life spans of tortoises. Anyone that gives you a number either made that number up, or they are repeating someone else's made up number. There have been several on record over 180 years old, and at least one that was 280.

Humans and animals age because the telomeres that bind the DNA strands together begin to unravel over time. Tortoise telomeres don't unravel. One article speculated that they live until something kills them.

Interesting! Do you happen to remember the title or author of the article?

 

[Tom]

Interesting! Do you happen to remember the title or author of the article?

I wish I did. I'd like to re-read it. It was in Reader's Digest if I remember correctly and it was about 20-25 years ago. I read Omni and other science based magazines back then, so I might have read it somewhere else. Some of the details stick in my head, but the details needed to find it again don't.

 

[turtlesteve]

Chelonian aging varies by species and the “essentially no aging” comments are true for some species but not others. In the species where it applies, life expectancy is just the average time before accident or disease kills them, and we have no idea how long it would take for old age to kill them.

Some species do exhibit aging and are relatively short lived. I believe chicken turtles live about 20 years for example.

One article here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abl7811