Age - a question for my all-knowing friends-list

[andrewducker]

Ed was asking on Facebook what it would be like if we didn't age visibly so much - after all, other animals don't tend to.

Is this actually true?  Thinking about it, most other animals don't seem to get wrinkled in the same way, nor does their fur turn completely white or all fall out.  But is this just some animals?  Do other animals age visibly the same way we do?  Or is there something odd about people?

Comments

[fjm.livejournal.com]

Smoking definitely throws things off kilter, and my mum started to look a lot younger within three years of giving up.

Prematurely grey hair in women is often to do with a hormone imbalance and is connected to fertility. It's a bad sign as is often linked to osteoporosis.

I don't know of any research, just a general awareness: I teach at a very multi-ethnic university and one learns to be very, very wary about judging age.

[andrewducker]

I'm going to be a lot more conscious about that one now - I'll keep an eye out!