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L. bezeichnet eine ungewöhnlich lange Lebenszeit von Menschen, Tieren und Pflanzen. Obwohl es in Bezug auf Menschen weder biologische noch demographische Kriterien dafür gibt, ab wann ein Individuum ein ungewöhnlich hohes Alter erreicht hat, gelten in der demographischen Forschung i. Allg. diejenigen Personen als langlebig, die mindestens 100 Jahre alt sind, wiss. engl. …

Longevity refers to the length of the life span of humans, animals and plants.  Although with regard to humans there are neither biological nor demographic criteria for the time when an individual has reached an exceptional point of old age, in demographic research such persons are generally considered long-lived who have reached the age of  100 years or more (centenarians). Men and women at least 110 years of age are called supercentenarians.Accounts of extremely long life spans are already to be found in the Bible, which served as a reference point for longevity throughout the early modern period. As late as 1751-1766 the (anonymous) author of the entry Vie, Durée de la vie (“Life, Life period”) in Diderot’s and d'Alembert’s Encyclopédie accepted as a given that immediately after creation humans lived for 900 years and more.: “To the extent that peoples grew in numbers, life spans gradually receded until they amounted to only seventy or eighty years, and on this level they have remained since Moses” …