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[Rolan7]

Turtle and parrot lifespans sound like proof that dinosaurs were intelligent, to me.  Since their ancestors have long lives.  (joking I guess)
also Google says it's 7F here and Yahoo says 11F
I'm inclined to believe Google.  BRB putting on a leather jacket as a fifth layer.
No, fingers, wake up

[Flying Dice]

Seems weird that animal lifespans are so arbitrary.  Goldfish and bears can live about 30 years, Parrots and Turtles can live about 90.  So why do dogs and cats only live 10-15 years?

'cause some humans are stupid and can't look after their animals properly.

I don't see how it's arbitrary though. It's not as though once they hit a certain age they keel over...

I'm pretty sure that a dog not living to 90 has nothing to do with how well it's taken care of. And the arbitrary part is how the lifespans are all different.

That suggests some decision-making mechanism though, but I don't really want to get into that.

People do have an inordinate influence on how long a cat or dog lives though.

Uh, no. You can help or hurt pet lifespans to a certain degree with your control over their diet or exercise, but that's trivial in comparison to average lifespans, issues to do with specific breeds, &c. For example, large purebred dogs are rarely going to make it much past a decade due to a combination of inbreeding and health problems related to their sheer size.

Cats, however, are more in the 15-20 year range, assuming they're well-cared for (because no shit letting your cat run around outside in a city is an easy way to lose it). We've had five in my lifetime, none of them died younger than 15-16, and they all received similar care, but the actual lifespan was pretty arbitrary -- four of them were tortoiseshells and one was a Siamese, and of those, the toothless starving adult stray we took in lived the longest, while the other four were with us from kittenhood (the Siamese lived to be 23, the second oldest). Cats are also fairly predictable; if you don't let them out and risk car/animal/whatever killing them, it's going to be kidney failure every damn time. And there's nothing you can do about it.

tl;dr living conditions are not that significant. A dog or cat will not live to be 30 regardless of what you do, just as a human being will not live to be 200. All good care does is push them towards the high end of the natural spectrum.

[scrdest]

just as a human being will not live to be 200.

Challenge. Motherfucking. ACCEPTED.

[Frumple]

Last I checked, most of it has to do with diet, general activities, and suchlike. Size, to a certain degree, iirc. It's generally not arbitrary at all, but instead a consequence of their biology and lifestyle. A highly active mammalian carnivore (cats, dogs) is generally not going to have that impressive of a lifespan, ferex.

[KingofstarrySkies]

_{why is it so cold}

[Darvi]

_{why is it so cold}

You see, KoSS, the Earth's orbit isn't circular, but elliptical. Add to that the planet's natural tilt, for a significant fraction of the year, an entire hemisphere will be just far away enough from the sun that it results in significant drops in temperature.

[Lagslayer]

_{why is it so cold}

You see, KoSS, the Earth's orbit isn't circular, but elliptical. Add to that the planet's natural tilt, for a significant fraction of the year, an entire hemisphere will be just far away enough from the sun that it results in significant drops in temperature.

*blocked from the sun

It's not distance, it's the fact that it's shielded by the other hemisphere.

[Flying Dice]

I'd argue that natural lifespans are absolutely arbitrary. Not in the sense that "We don't know how long things will live, it's completely arbitrary!" but rather "Why do groups of animals which exhibit this or that sort of behavior die at this age rather than that age? Why do human bodies stop maintaining themselves at 60-70 years old, rather than 30-40 or 120-130?" We have a good understanding of the how, less so of the why.

[Darvi]

Yeah I think the tilt is the more important factor, with the orbit just contributing to the southern hemisphere's more relatively mild winters. But it's 1AM and I don't care about accuracy, so meh.

[Dutchling]

I'd argue that natural lifespans are absolutely arbitrary. Not in the sense that "We don't know how long things will live, it's completely arbitrary!" but rather "Why do groups of animals which exhibit this or that sort of behavior die at this age rather than that age? Why do human bodies stop maintaining themselves at 60-70 years old, rather than 30-40 or 120-130?" We have a good understanding of the how, less so of the why.

Why would there be a why?

[Darvi]

I'd argue that natural lifespans are absolutely arbitrary. Not in the sense that "We don't know how long things will live, it's completely arbitrary!" but rather "Why do groups of animals which exhibit this or that sort of behavior die at this age rather than that age? Why do human bodies stop maintaining themselves at 60-70 years old, rather than 30-40 or 120-130?" We have a good understanding of the how, less so of the why.

Why would there be a why?

Because there's always gonna be a small child that just won't stop asking questions.

[ggamer]

"So... Is this what you want LG? To become one or whatever?"

"THIS IS ONE OPTIOOON, TO EXPERIENCE THE ECSTASY OF EGO DEEEATH."

christ adventure time slow down

[Flying Dice]

I'd argue that natural lifespans are absolutely arbitrary. Not in the sense that "We don't know how long things will live, it's completely arbitrary!" but rather "Why do groups of animals which exhibit this or that sort of behavior die at this age rather than that age? Why do human bodies stop maintaining themselves at 60-70 years old, rather than 30-40 or 120-130?" We have a good understanding of the how, less so of the why.

Why would there be a why?

You see? Provided you're not a believer of some faith or another, there's no apparent reason for why a given type of animal tends to live as long as it does (in absolute terms, rather than relative to other species). Thus, arbitrary lifespan.

[hops]

I'd argue that natural lifespans are absolutely arbitrary. Not in the sense that "We don't know how long things will live, it's completely arbitrary!" but rather "Why do groups of animals which exhibit this or that sort of behavior die at this age rather than that age? Why do human bodies stop maintaining themselves at 60-70 years old, rather than 30-40 or 120-130?" We have a good understanding of the how, less so of the why.

Why would there be a why?

Because there's always gonna be a small child that just won't stop asking questions.

why won't they stop?

[Frumple]

You see? Provided you're not a believer of some faith or another, there's no apparent reason for why a given type of animal tends to live as long as it does (in absolute terms, rather than relative to other species). Thus, arbitrary lifespan.

I'm... faintly confused by what you mean by "why", here. We know fairly well both the mechanism (various bits of biology) and the reason they're like that (evolution, if not an exact mapping of the history). It's... not arbitrary. Lifespans are a direct results of the species history. The why is "that's what their surroundings made of them"... more or less.