Experts said the findings, by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, were "staggering" and "thought-provoking". Mutations are changes that creep into the instruction manual for building and running our bodies - our DNA. Those mutations have long been known to be at the root of cancer, but whether they were important for ageing has been debated for decades. Researchers at Sanger say they have produced "the first experimental evidence" suggesting they are. They analysed how quickly mutations occur in species with different life expectancies. They looked at DNA from a cat, black and white colobus, dog, ferret, giraffe, horse, human, lion, mouse, naked mole rat, rabbit, rat, ring-tailed lemur and a tiger.
