Diving seabirds may shed light on how we age. During a presentation at the Society for Experimental Biology meeting in Salzburg on 2nd July, Kyle Elliott, a PhD student at the University of Manitoba and the study's lead author, said, "Most of what we know about aging is from studies of short-lived round worms, fruit flies, mice, and chickens, but long-lived animals age differently. We need data from long-lived animals, and one good example is long-lived seabirds."

Elliott also said, "Not only do these birds live very long, but they maintain their energetic lifestyle in a very extreme environment into old age."

Researchers looked at Guillemots and found that the seabird lives to its 30s with little changes in energy and virility. This research is definitely one step beyond Botox and ginseng!

(Via ScienceDaily)

(Photo by Mike Boylan/USFWS)