In 1999, I met Cynthia Kenyon for the first time, and she told me her one-line proof that aging is an evolved trait. Lifespans in nature range from hours to thousands of years. This shows that natural selection is not constrained, but can implement aging on whatever time scale is appropriate.
A few years ago, Annette Baudisch added another dimension to this proof: It’s not only the duration of life, but the shape of the aging curve that takes on so many various forms. Misguided theories of aging are based on the human life cycle (and others like it) with Gompertz
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