Try Squarespace for free: https://www.squarespace.com/minuteearth The human lifespan might be limited, in part, because natural selection just stops working late in life. Thanks to our Patreon patrons https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth and our YouTube sponsors for helping to make this video possible. ___________________________________________ Video Keywords: Mortality plateau: the leveling out of the mortality rate that is observed at late ages in various species ___________________________________________ Subscribe to MinuteEarth on YouTube: http://goo.gl/EpIDGd Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ And visit our website: https://www.minuteearth.com/ Say hello on Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6 And Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC And download our videos on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n ___________________________________________ Credits (Twitter handles): Script Writer: Kate Yoshida (@KateYoshida) Script Editor: Alex Reich and David Goldenberg Video Illustrator: Arcadi Garcia Rius Video Director: David Goldenberg and Emily Elert Video Narrator: Emily Elert (@eelert) With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Ever Salazar, Peter Reich Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder ___________________________________________ References: De Grey, A (Sept 2016, personal communication) Horiuchi S, Wilmoth JR (1998) Deceleration in the Age Pattern of Mortality at Older Ages. Demography 35: 4. https://link.springer.com/article/10.2307/3004009 Mueller, LD, Rose MR (1996) Evolutionary theory predicts late-life mortality plateaus. PNAS 26:15249-15253. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.93.26.15249 Rose MR, Rauser CL, Mueller LD, Benford G. (2006) A revolution for aging research. Biogerontology 7:269-77. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16612665 Rose, MR, Flatt, T, Graves, JL, Greer, L, Martinez, DE, Matos, MM, Mueller, LD, Shmookler Reis, RJ, and P. Shahrestani. 2012. What is aging? Frontiers in Genetics 3:134. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2012.00134/full Rose, M. (Sept 2016, personal communication)