An interesting theory I heard at #BAAM19: perhaps there's selection pressure for shorter lifespans in the presence of very slow-transmission chronic infectious diseases.
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This would explain why flying animals are so long-lived relative to body size, metabolism, and fertility; they are less crowded, so they have fewer opportunities to catch diseases from conspecifics.
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Are slow-moving infectious diseases somehow special in this model, beyond their effect of increasing the natural hazard rate? E.g. birds have an easier time with predation as well (since they spend most time high up where larger animals can’t hang)
