AI has taken a guess at the lifespan of Denisovans UPI/Alamy

Artificial intelligence may be able to estimate the maximum lifespans of extinct species and early humans. The technique relies on analysing specific regions of DNA that are linked to ageing.

Benjamin Mayne at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia and his colleagues built an AI to predict the lifespan of different animals. To do this, they first trained an AI on the known genomes of 252 species from five classes of animals, including mammals, reptiles and fish, and their maximum lifespans.

The AI then narrowed down almost 30,000 DNA regions to just 42 that related to lifespan. These were then used to create a formula that can convert them into a prediction of maximum lifespan.


The researchers tested the AI on some extinct species. It estimated that the woolly mammoth could live for up to 60 years and Denisovans, a mysterious extinct cousin of modern humans, could live for about 38 years.

The researchers also found that Pinta Island tortoises could live to be 120 years old. Lonesome George, the last known individual of the species, is estimated to have been more than 100 at death. And the oldest bowhead whale is thought to have lived to 211, but the model predicts the species could live to 268.

The formula was off by around four years on average, when compared with animals that we know the maximum lifespan of. However, it also predicted that the maximum lifespan for humans was 38, suggesting the results should be taken with a pinch of salt.

We also don’t know how well this translates to extinct species: ancient DNA is more degraded and harder to analyse, says Mayne, so the model needs extra information. To arrive at a 60-year estimate for the mammoth, for example, the researchers had to incorporate the African elephant’s genome.

For existing species, knowing how long they can live is essential to working out whether they are reaching their natural limits or if there are factors hindering their longevity, says Mayne. Some of the guesses for lifespan might be overestimates because the model uses the genomes of both captive and wild animals.

There is “exciting potential” in uncovering information that is potentially lost to history, says Eilis Hannon at the University of Exeter, UK.

Journal reference: Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54447-w

We have corrected the relationship between Denisovans and modern humans.