Baptiste Le Bourg, Éric Le Bourg, Le Bourg, Eric, LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés - UMRi 7266 (LIENSs), Université de La Rochelle (ULR)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut des sciences du cerveau de Toulouse. (ISCT), Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), and Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-CHU Toulouse [Toulouse]-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-CHU Toulouse [Toulouse]-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
International audience; Ectotherms: species whose internal temperature is dependent on the ambient temperature. Endotherms: species whose internal temperature is fixed and regulated by the organism. Fish: paraphyletic group of fin and gill-bearing aquatic vertebrates. The term is used for convenience and refers usually to the teleosts taxa, but some authors may also include other taxa (e.g. elasmobranchs). Iteroparity: a reproductive strategy with several reproductive events during life, these events possibly occurring in successive years. Life-history strategies: strategies selected by natural selection during evolution allowing species to develop, live, and propagate (e.g. species with a short lifespan and many offspring, like mice, vs long-lived species with a few offspring, like elephants). Life-history traits: traits moulding life-history strategies (e.g. body size, age at maturity, duration of development, number of offspring, lifespan). Marine species: aquatic species living in seas and oceans, as opposed to freshwater species living in rivers, ponds, lakes and so on. Record lifespan: longest duration of life of individuals observed in a species. In most marine species, this age can reflect the age at capture and not the maximal lifespan, i.e. the lifespan of the last survivors.Abstract Determining the lifespan of marine animals is not easy because they live underwater, in the wild, and not in the laboratory. Various indirect methods have been used to overcome this issue. This article describes these methods and tries to explain why some non-mammalian marine species can live so long, when compared to mammals, terrestrial or not.