Wonder why you live longer than a chimp? Thank your MOTHER IN LAW • The Register: Back then, female apes would generally die once they were past childbearing age: but naturally a few genetically different individuals might live on for longer. According to Hawkes and her colleagues, these older ape ladies in many cases would get hold of suitable infant food and pitch in to help feed their descendants. The nippers would thus be weaned earlier, allowing their mothers to have another child sooner, so spreading the grandma's unusual long-life genes faster and conferring an evolutionary advantage.
That, according to the theory, is why human females can live so long past their reproductive lifespan: because it helps to spread their genes.
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