The tip of their chromosome, the telomere, doesn’t get damaged through cell replication. This means they are not subject to senescence and could theoretically live forever in good condition.
No, it doesn’t. There are multiple different mechanisms that lead to senescence. Telomere shortening is just one of them.
First, why reproduce this way?
That question sounds like evolution has intent in a way it doesn’t.
The key questions are: (1) What benefit did marginal change in the direction of developing a feature provide? (2) Why is the feature evolutionary stable and a species doesn’t lose it? (3) Why didn’t other species outcompete the species and drive it to extinction so that we don’t observe it?
No, it doesn’t. There are multiple different mechanisms that lead to senescence. Telomere shortening is just one of them.
That question sounds like evolution has intent in a way it doesn’t.
The key questions are: (1) What benefit did marginal change in the direction of developing a feature provide? (2) Why is the feature evolutionary stable and a species doesn’t lose it? (3) Why didn’t other species outcompete the species and drive it to extinction so that we don’t observe it?