Activity during the first days of life predicts lifespan in a naturally clonal vertebrate

Abstract

Lifespan varies widely among individuals, yet the extent to which such variation persists when genetic and environmental differences are minimized remains unclear. Here we quantify such stochastic lifespan variation in a naturally clonal vertebrate and test whether and how this variation is linked to early-life behavioral individuality. We followed N = 33 genetically identical Amazon mollies (Poecilia formosa), separated on day 1 of their life into highly standardized environments, from birth to death. Despite genetic uniformity and environmental standardization, lifespan varies markedly, spanning 502 - 826 days. Continuous high-resolution behavioral tracking during the first four weeks of life reveals that seemingly stochastic early-life activity differences explain 32.5% of this variation. Higher activity predicts shorter lifespan during the first two weeks, but as activity levels and among-individual variation in activity decline over early development, a U-shaped relationship emerges, with both low- and high-activity individuals outliving those with intermediate activity. These findings show that signatures of lifespan emerge within days of birth, even among genetically identical individuals, highlighting developmental stochasticity and early-life contingencies as major contributors to variation in life-history outcomes.