Aging is an adaptation that selects in animals against disruption of homeostasis

During evolution, Muller ’s ratchet permanently generates deleterious germline mutations that eventually must be defused by selection. It seems widely held that cancer and aging-related diseases (ARDs) cannot contribute to this germline gene selection because they tail reproduction and thus occur too late, at the end of t he life cycle. Here we posit however that by lessening the offspring’s survival by proxy through diminishing parental care, they can still contribute to the selection.The hypothesis in detail: The widespread occurrence of aging in animals suggests that it is an adaptation.
Source: Medical Hypotheses - Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Source Type: research