Dear MARMAM community,
My co-authors and I are happy to announce the online publication of the following paper:
Martien, K.K., R.W. Baird, K.M. Robertson, M.A. Kratofil, S.D. Mahaffy, K.I. West, S.J. Chivers, and F.I. Archer (2026). Epigenetic age estimation for Hawaiian false killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens) in the absence of ‘known-age’ individuals. Molecular Ecology Resources, 26:e70099.
Abstract: Epigenetic aging models hold great promise for enhancing many aspects of wildlife research and management. However, their utility is limited by the need to train models using known-aged animals, which are rare among wildlife species. We present a novel approach to developing methylation-based age prediction models that enables us to train models using samples from individuals whose chronological age is estimated with uncertainty based on photo-identification catalog data. Our approach incorporates this uncertainty into model training by representing the age of each individual with a probability distribution rather than a point estimate. We similarly represent the methylation profiles of individuals as binomial distributions and produce a distribution of predicted age for each sample that reflects the uncertainty in both its age and methylation profile. We compared age models trained using a wide range of parameterizations, training data sets, and analytical methods to determine how well they predicted the catalog-based age estimates. The resulting model has a median absolute error of 1.70 years, outperforming many published clocks trained with known-age samples. This approach significantly expands the range of species for which accurate methylation-based age models can be developed, particularly those of conservation concern where known-age samples are limited. By producing distributions of predicted age, it also enables researchers to accurately communicate the uncertainty in their age estimates to subsequent data users.
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Karen K. Martien, Ph.D.
Southwest Fisheries Science Center
8901 La Jolla Shores Dr.
La Jolla, CA 92037, USA
858-546-7058
I sometimes work irregular hours, but I respect your work schedule and do not expect an action or reply outside of your working hours.