Now I fathered my last child when I was early thirties, and I remember being a bit more tired with her than all the rest. Now she did have some special needs being born 8 weeks too early, but even running around after her when she was older seemed to tire me out a bit quicker. I couldn’t imagine trying for more children after my thirties, and I don’t even carry them for 9 months. But I just read about a 110 year old that may have fathered quite a few little ones, after going years with no interest at all. He had a tumor removed and was again interested. Hmmm.
Now I guess I should mention that this 110 year old is a reptile, a tuatara to be exact. While the article headline calls it a lizard, and it looks something like a lizard, it belongs to its own little clan. They also have a life expectancy of around 200 years, so I guess this guy is really just middle age.
I’m going to have to do another internet search soon. This article got me wondering the latest ages that animals will generally conceive. I don’t want to know the rare oldest mothers/fathers, I more interested in the age of general last conception, and what percent this is of the normal life span. People are now normally having babies into their 40’s, and with the life expectancy somewhere in the late 70’s, this makes people clock in at conception at about 50% of the life expectancy. The tuatara, if the article is acurate, has a higher percentage. Not enough information to get a specific number, but it looks like it may be over 50% of life expectancy. Hmm.. I’ll need to keep digging.
