22. Bowhead Whales Illustrate Systems-Level Solutions to Exceptional Longevity

Bowhead whales, currently the longest-lived species of mammals known, have a lifespan of more than 200 y. Their biology implies enhanced features such as genome maintenance, cancer control, tissue integrity, and network robustness, which are solutions to Peto’s paradox (lower cancer incidence despite many more dividing cells) achieved by distributed changes rather than by a single pathway (46–48). More broadly, across species, longevity reflects long-term evolutionary co-optimization of maintenance, damage-control, and robustness systems.