>Tony Benjamin Csoka <csoka@itsa.ucsf.edu> writes:
>
>> I agree that telomerase might not be the "immortality gene" but could you
>> provide a reference to support your statement that Galapogos tortoises
>> don't appear to age. I thought they just had a long lifespan?
>
>I don't know about the tortoises, but there are some species that do
>not age, most notably some fishes and lobsters. They do not age, and
>just grow slowly larger until an accident or lack of food does them
>in. I don't have Leonard Hayflick's _How and Why We Age_ here, but he
>discuss this subject.
It's my understanding that many of these species (the lobsters in
particular) have since been shown to age, and the current theory
holds that every animal ages if it lives long enough. A long
while back people thought that growth cessation was a necessary
part of aging and hence animals that keep growing (fish, lobsters)
didn't age.