Bats are the longest -lived mammals relative to body size, and a species called the Greater Mouse-eared Bat lives especially long. Scientists said that unlike in people and most other animals, in this bat species the structures called telomeres located at the end of chromosomes, thread-like strands inside a cell's nucleus that carry genes determining heredity, do not shorten with age.

“Studying exceptionally long-living mammals that have naturally evolved mechanisms to fight aging is an alternative way to identify the molecular basis of extended health spans” said biologist Emma Teeling of University College Dublin in Ireland, one of the study leaders.