Why does death occur? Why does one organism live for a few days and another for many years?

Question

Here are the life spans of a few animals, it will make you clear that some organisms live for a few days while others for many years

MAYFLY : 1 day
WHEAT : 5 months
DOG : 15-20 years
MONKEY : 26 years
CAT : 35-40 years
HORSE : 60 years
MAN : 65-80 years
EAGLE : 90 years
PARROT : 140 years
TORTOISE : 200-250 years
BANYAN TREE : 200-300 years
SEQUOIA TREE : 3000-4000 years

scientific answers r prefered more!

Answer 1

Among mammals, smaller animals have a faster heat rate and thus die faster than larger mammals. ie: rabbits to horses

Organisms have evolved to live just long enough to maximize their species' procreation. Mayflies, actually live more than one day, but its that they live as adults for one day. This is all the time they need to find a mate and lay eggs for the next generation. If they lived any longer, their massive numbers would devastate the resources of their habitats.

Notice the correlations between the natural lifespan of the organism and its gestation period. The trees take hundreds of years before being able to reproduce, and thus require to live longer.

The given parrot, human and horse lifespan is the lifespan in "captivity" and not their "natural" lifespan.

Answer 2

1. Would, Man In the Box, Again, and Rooster. 2. I'm not sure if Anthony Keidis is clean now, but I think he is. 3. Grunge. They were very influential along with the many other grunge bands in the 90's. 4. No way man, at least change the name of the band. While Jerry Cantrell is a GOD, no Layne, no Chains. Dave Grohl made another band after Kurt died and guess what? It's great! Had it stayed Nirvana it wouldn't be the same.

Answer 3

The life span depends on the Size (Surface Area Heat Loss) and activity range (Enerfy requirements) of the organism. The slower one lives, the longer it lives. For animals, it is determined as the number of heart beats. For all animals or birds the total number of allowable heartbeats are almost the same.

A mouse needs more energy as the surface heat loss is more, so it's heart beats at almost 12 times a human heart does, and thus lives short. Whereas elephants have less surface heat loss and lesser and thus heart beats slower than humans and lives longer than humans. A giant whale lives longer as its heart beats only 1 or 2 times in a minute. Wow!

Even in humans, it is some million heartbeats, which a man is designated to. If a person lives in tensed life, heart beats faster and he dies younger and the vice versa is also the same.

In case of elephants, it is the teeth that determines the age. There are only 5 or 6 sets of teeth an elephant can regenerate. Each set can live for say 10 to 12 years. After the last set is worn out, the elephant dies out of hunger.

In case of reptiles, they can take less food and can generate energy by heat of their surroundings itself, (by basking around), thus requiring the heartbeats to be slower and thus turtles, crocs, alligators, lizards live longer as compared to their size and energy requirements.

Tigers or big cats and bears, having larger surface area can live longer, but it is their activities (hunting, foraging food, etc.) which accelerates their energy requirement and heartbeats and curtailing their life span to only 20 to 35 years.

We can see that zoo animals live longer than their wild cousins, as they do not spend energy much in foraging or hunting.

For more information refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_life_span

Answer 4

We are all here to fulfill a role that we've agreed to before coming to this plane. The reason some entities live longer than others is because of the role they fulfill. It has all balanced out, and from a distance everything is perfect here on this little blue ball in space.

Answer 5

Different species have different metabolism, growth, development. It is a question of strategy. Some of them "found" it was advantageous to have a short life and much offspring as fast as possible (for example when they live in fast changing environment, as shallow pools periodically drying up). Other "chose" the strategy of long life (they can collect energy longer and when they fail to reproduce, they can have another try next year). Study of ecology gives you much more understanding of different strategies of organisms and their interactions.

Answer 6

hmmmm -
Dog and cat are 7-17
Horse is 15-20 - unless it's Barbaro
Eagle and parrot 10-15

we each were created with our role on this earth

Answer 7

ehhh I think it's because everything has different kinds of cells. Cell life determines the life of your body

Answer 8

It's Evolution baby!!

Answer 9

Because science likes to keep it interesting.

Answer 10

Its how quickly they develop. Basically we develop then die. We all die at the same stage of development. you can't count that in years.