Data and code for: Dog lifespans and the evolution of ageing

The basic tenets of the evolutionary theories of senescence are well supported. However, there has been little progress in determining the relative influences of mutation accumulation and life history optimisation. The causes of the well-established inverse relationship between lifespan and body size across dog breeds are used here to test these two classes of theories. The lifespan-body size relationship is confirmed for the first time after controlling for breed phylogeny. The lifespan-body size relationship cannot be explained by evolutionary responses to differences in extrinsic mortality, either of contemporary breeds or of breeds at their establishment. The development of breeds larger and smaller than ancestral grey wolves has occurred through changes in early growth rate. This may explain the increase in the minimum age-dependent mortality rate with breed body size and thus higher age-dependent mortality throughout adult life. The main cause of this mortality is cancer. These pa..., Data are from published sources., Data were analysed using R.衰老演化理论的核心要义已得到充分佐证。然而，目前在厘清突变积累（mutation accumulation）与生活史优化（life history optimisation）的相对影响方面，相关研究仍进展寥寥。本研究利用犬品种间业已明确的寿命与体型负相关关系，对这两类理论展开检验。在控制犬品种系统发育关系后，本研究首次证实了寿命与体型的负相关关系。该寿命与体型的相关关系无法通过外在死亡风险（extrinsic mortality）差异的演化响应得到解释，既不适用于当代犬品种，也不适用于其初始培育阶段的犬品种。相较于祖先灰狼，体型更大或更小的犬品种的培育，均通过调整早期生长速率得以实现。这或可解释为何随犬品种体型增大，最低年龄依赖性死亡率（age-dependent mortality）随之升高，进而导致整个成年期的年龄依赖性死亡率整体上升。此类死亡的主要诱因为癌症。上述研究结果（原文此处存在截断）…… 本研究数据均来自已发表文献，数据分析采用R语言完成。