Can turtles die from old age

Is it true that turtles never die of old age. I have heard that the only way a turtle can die is from diseases, being attacked etc. So they could live forever but eventually their luck runs out. Is this true? Some websites support this claim while others dismiss it. What do you guys think?

Are you serious? Of course, turtles die of old age. Depending on the kind they have different life spans, but usually they live up to no more than 150 years.

Please provide links to the sites that claim turles don't die of old age.

Here you go
link

Apparently they exhibit negligible senescence which means they don't age once they are mature.

Тhanks! I had never heard of that but is very fascinating if true. I also found this article that seems to supprt the same idea Can turtles live forever?

On the other hand, if that is the case I think I should be able to find some article on the topic written by a biologist... Still very interesting. If true, turtles can be the answer to slowing (or stopping) the aging process in humans?!

As I understand it, tutles are so long-lived because their metabolism is very restrained. They eat slowly, move slowly, breathe slowly, they even mate slowly.

I don't think they're immune to the effects of aging though, just resistant. As far as I know, they're governed by the Hayflick limit just like every other living organism - their cells can only replicate so many times (50 or so) before damage and 'data loss' take their toll and cause a breakdown in one system or process, that then leads to death.

But, because their metabolism is so slow, they can live for a long, long time without running out the clock in their cells.

This is just my understanding, not a definitive answer by any stretch of the imagination.

If anyone has any more information on the subject, I'd love to read it.

wow, thats really intresting, prehaps one day we will evolve in a simalar way, so we in theory can live forever, this is indeed very intresting.

My biology teacher was saying the same sort of thing back when I was in school. He said he thought the same sort of thing, that when a tortoise reaches maturity it stops ageing but dies from diseases or being eaten. To be honest, it does seem kinda crazy, but for some this made me think of sharks and how they are completely immune to pretty much every disease See here Maybe, through evoloution a tortoise has developed the ability to stop ageing once it reaches a certain part of its life, wheras sharks have evolved to make an almost flawless immune system? I don't know how because I don't know too much about the subject, but its just and idea.

Excellent so hopefully one day sceintists will be able to play with my DNA and alter it to similar to a turtle so that i can live a few hundred years.

I Think i would get bored to be honest imagine having great great great great grandchildren

Also i would have to change my name to Michaelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo and what ever that 4th Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle was called. Although being 30 i suppose i could be a middle aged mutant ninja turtle.

Seriosly though will it happen one day were we are altered to enlist certain DNA or other of animals so we can benefit so that we can live longer with no disease if so i dont wanna be a part of it it seems wrong

Just like the sharks, alligators (or was it crocodiles, not sure) have developped a way to resist disease: They produce a sort of natural antibiotics in their blood, reducing chance of infection. If evolution can cause this, I can imagine it can create an organism that ages at a greatly reduced speed, or even not at all

I think this might be the right explaination. It is not that tortoises do not age, its that they age very slowly and are more likely to have their life cut short by disease or predation than old age.

Originally posted by krax
wow, thats really intresting, prehaps one day we will evolve in a simalar way, so we in theory can live forever, this is indeed very intresting.

Living forever is kind of like staying in kindergarden forever, or being a bachelor forever, or working forever without retiring. Life is full of milestones, that we must pass. Death is the final one, or at least the final one that is undeniably and incontrovertably known. We all know dying too young is tragic, but dying too old is tragic. It is like being a 20 year old in kindergarden. You are out of place, you cannot keep up with the group, everybody has passed you buy, and you cannot get the same joy from finger painting or learning to recite the alphabet as the 5 year olds.

This is not true. THe page also claims that fish and amphibians don't die of old age either. THis is simply untrue. THey might not enter a stage in their later years where they are markedly different, like humans, but they certainly aren't immortal. If that was the case, then pet turtles would pretty much never die. Especially ones at zoos and the like, if only predation and diseases in the wild were killing them.

Also, consider, if they're 150 years old, and die from a cough or the cold, then what does that mean, that they've never had a cough or a cold or other disease before? That for 150 years, they managed to avoid any kind of dangerous disease, and then all of a suddent finally came across one that could kill them? No, they got old, and died from a disease, because they were old and weak.

Also, just think about it, turtles have existed for millenia. If the only way to get rid of turtles was for them to be attacked by super deadly diseases or to be eaten, then either there'd be nothing on earth but turtles, or turtles'd have ot be the crappiest and most incompetent animals out there, to be dying in such tremendous numbers.

[edit on 8-12-2006 by Nygdan]

This seems to be a closed question. In other words, AJH91 want's the answer to be either Yes or No.

This is also a trick question. What is the definition of old age? How can one possibly die from old age? With age, the body's regeneration rate slows. As a result everything dies of a condition, regardless of it's maturity.

But in the end, it is subject to interpretation.

I'm also suprised that no-one in this thread has brought up Methuselah, a 4500 year old tree.

I think what he is trying to say is that the turtle's aging process is either so slow or non-existant, that when a 150 year old turtle dies from illness predation or what have you, it is not because the turtle is 150 years old, but because the cause of death could kill any turtle.

Imagine if a 25 year old person is killed because they get hit by a bus. We would not say if that person were 23 years old, they would have survived. Similarly, when the typical 150 year old turtle dies from whatever 150 year old turtles die from, according to this theory, the turtle would have died if it were 20, 50, 80, 150, or 200 years old.

A good way to test this theory would be to look at the age of deaths of a turtle population. Since humans die becaue they get old and weak, most humans in the industrial world die at relatively the same age. If humans could only die by "getting hit by a bus" we would not only see humans dying at older ages, but the lifespans would vary erratically. Similarly, I wonder if turtle life spans vary erratically.

That's like saying people never die from old age. People would live forever if they didn't die from disease or injury first.

As any multicellular living organism ages the cells become less efficient. The normal defenses and repair mechanisms slow down and don't work as well. So at some point a minor infection or injury that a young healthy body would quickly fix by itself becomes life ending in an older individual.

This applies to trees as well as animals.

[edit on 10-12-2006 by dave_54]

Originally posted by Nygdan
This is not true. THe page also claims that fish and amphibians don't die of old age either. THis is simply untrue. THey might not enter a stage in their later years where they are markedly different, like humans, but they certainly aren't immortal. If that was the case, then pet turtles would pretty much never die. Especially ones at zoos and the like, if only predation and diseases in the wild were killing them.

Also, consider, if they're 150 years old, and die from a cough or the cold, then what does that mean, that they've never had a cough or a cold or other disease before? That for 150 years, they managed to avoid any kind of dangerous disease, and then all of a suddent finally came across one that could kill them? No, they got old, and died from a disease, because they were old and weak.

Also, just think about it, turtles have existed for millenia. If the only way to get rid of turtles was for them to be attacked by super deadly diseases or to be eaten, then either there'd be nothing on earth but turtles, or turtles'd have ot be the crappiest and most incompetent animals out there, to be dying in such tremendous numbers.

[edit on 8-12-2006 by Nygdan]

Well, if it weren't for their hedonistic lifestyles... When we're not watching, good turtles burn themselves out young through excess with booze, drugs, women, and Rock 'n' Roll. This combined with their proensity to emulate the actions of Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the "Jackass" crew are what have kept our turtle friend from becoming our Chelonian overlords.

Originally posted by dave_54
As any multicellular living organism ages the cells become less efficient. The normal defenses and repair mechanisms slow down and don't work as well. So at some point a minor infection or injury that a young healthy body would quickly fix by itself becomes life ending in an older individual.

The whole point of this theory is that this doesnt apply to turtles because they show negligible senesce (physically deteriorate) and therefore according to this theory comparisons with human (which do senesce) are irrelevant like comparing apples and oranges.

heres another link.
Link

The fourth turtle is Raphael...

Also notice it said the trait is shared by fish and amphibians....so maybe an out for the Reptoid fans, eh?

So basically, this seems to be a cold-blooded thing, so probably not something we can use to adapt our own cells...though I'm sure someone, somewhere, is working on it, if just to make a buck...

reply to post by Jgruh4e
I'm sorry but actually tortoises don't die of old age as they dont experience cell death unlike most living animals. It's just as life goes on they will eventually fall prey to the many other wild animals of the world or end up catching a disease, but they can simply NOT die of old age, again due to the fact their cells do not die which is what leads to death in old age.

Not showing signs of aging does not equate to not aging.

A turtle doesn't have the same body type as other animals so noticing they are aging may be much more difficult.