Ruby et al. recently analyzed historical lifespan data on more than 3200 naked mole-rats, collected over a total observation period of about 38 years (Ruby et al., 2018). They report that mortality hazards do not seem to increase across the full range of their so-far-observed lifespan, and conclude that this defiance of Gompertz's law 'uniquely identifies the naked mole-rat as a non-aging mammal'. Here, we explain why we believe this conclusion is premature.

Department Game Management and Wildlife Biology Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences Czech University of Life Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of General Zoology Faculty of Biology University of Duisburg Essen Essen Germany

Department of Reproduction Management Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research Berlin Germany

Institute of Medical Statistics Computer and Data Sciences Jena University Hospital Jena Germany

Institute of Medical Systems Biology Ulm University Ulm Germany

Leibniz Institute on Aging Fritz Lipmann Institute Jena Germany

Moscow Society of Naturalists Moscow Russia

University Hospital University of Duisburg Essen Essen Germany

Elife. 2018 Jan 24;7:e31157. doi: 10.7554/eLife.31157. PubMed

Elife. 2019 Jul 09;8:e47047. doi: 10.7554/eLife.47047. PubMed

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