This book is the world’s largest compendium of documented life spans in vertebrates. Record life spans for over 3000 species of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish indicate wild or captive status, sex (where available) and are linked to source references. A brief introduction addresses the concept of life span, summarizes methods for data gathering, criteria for inclusion, and provides a graphic summarization of within and among group variation in record life spans. The data is organized into four main tables: mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians, and fishes. Each data table is preceded by a brief introduction summarizing important aspects of the life history of important subgroups (e.g. orders). Tables of life spans are organized alphabetically by order, family and genus. Scientific and common name indices facilitate finding record life spans for particular organisms.

The book is useful in demography, fisheries and wildlife biology, ecology, population and evolutionary biology, and gerontology.

James R. Carey is Professor of Entomology at the University of California, Davis and member of the Center for the Economics and Demography of Aging at the University of California, Berkeley. Debra S. Judge is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Departments of Anthropology and Entomology at the University of California, Davis.