Kemrain said:
I don't think this is right. If you look at other long lived animals, like parrots or turtles, they don't take that long to mature..even though they live longer than humans.
Humans don't have a 20 year period to grow up due to the fact that they live long....remember that comparatively speaking, humans have only lived long in the last hundred years or so on a regular basis.
Humans take 20 years to grow because we are born incomplete. A woman's hips are only so wide, and humans have huge brains and skull cases. It would be impossible for a woman to give birth to a child with a fully developed brain and nervous system, as the head would be too large. As a result, humans are born with undeveloped nervous systems, which leaves a much longer period of time to mature.
From what I understand, this is one of the big reasons. Other animals like dogs, cats, etc. are born much further along in their developmental period than humans are, and hence grow much quicker. That's my understanding of matters.
Some old Dragonlance supplements dealt with the subject effectively. I believe it was Otherlands that had elves age a little slower, aging at the same rate as humans until about Age 12 or so, then slowing down and hitting adulthood/sexual maturity by age 36. Once they've hit 36, it slows down even more, and they stay effectively adult for a few hundred years.
The novels coincided as well, with both Laurana and Gilthanas being young adults, but far under 110 years old.
Banshee
