Early‐life telomere length predicts life‐history strategy and reproductive senescence in a threatened wild songbird

Abstract

Telomeres have been likened to a 'biological clock', with the gradual shortening of telomeres at each cell division ticking down to senescence and eventual cell death. This analogy has been consolidated by the many studies that have investigated the relationship between telomere length and ageing in humans (Cawthon et al., 2003),