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I've been wondering about this a lot lately. what would the average lifespan be of a space marine?

what do you mean by extraordinary event? like a space marine dying? because if I'm not mistaken space marines can live thousands of years if they don't die in battle, I mean they'd have to be able to since there are still veterans of the heresy around

This question really cannot be answered until it is specfied better, because theres no proof that a space marine can even die of old age. I mean look at Dante hes 11k years old, and if you count dreadnoughts then look at the SW one, he fought with Russ in the great crusade.

^^ thats a good point. I guess I thought GW would have mentioned some average number in fluff or one of the space marine codices, especially an earlier one like 3rd edition.

The oldest living Marine is Dante, at around 1100 years old. I don't know of any fluff offhand where Marines die of old age. By the nature of their profession, they die from combat. Chaos Marines don't count for this because time in the warp works far differently, and there are Marines in the Eye of Terror who only saw the Horus Heresy a few years ago.

IIRC they mention in the Horus Heresy novels (one of the early ones, the original trilogy) that Astartes can't die of old age. As stated, Dante himself is 11 thousand years old and still kicking around. The Emperor is on life support, but they imply in Mechanicum that he's been around a long, long time, fighting for humanity. Plus, Dreadnought pilots are at least somewhat living, and ol' Bjorn is around 10 thousand years old, having fought in the Heresy itself.

It should be noted that in the blood angels codex the mention that blood angels live noticeably longer than other chapters, hence why Dante is the oldest living space marine. The thing is despite Dante still being combat fit, he is getting older (although this could really just be a psychological weariness.) A marine lives for a long time, but you get some like Sergeant Telion who if you look at the picture is quite old physically, but still on active combat duty, but still younger than Dante.

just for clarification, 11k or 11 thousand years is 11,000 years

Dante has been around for over 1000 years, per codex at least 1000, probably 1100 to 1200 years old. If he really has been around for 11,000 years, he would be as old as the primarchs. So far the oldest known Space marine is probably Byjorn the fel handed (who happens to be a dreadnaught now) of the space wolves not counting wierd time changes while in the warp

sudojoe wrote:just for clarification, 11k or 11 thousand years is 11,000 years

Dante has been around for over 1000 years, per codex at least 1000, probably 1100 to 1200 years old. If he really has been around for 11,000 years, he would be as old as the primarchs. So far the oldest known Space marine is probably Byjorn the fel handed (who happens to be a dreadnaught now) of the space wolves not counting wierd time changes while in the warp

I also thought it was 1000 + years. The entry for Captain Lysander mentions how he has never know the blood angels chapter master to be anyone other than Dante, even before he was stuck in the warp for 1000 years himself.

As it stands though, Bjorn the Fell handed is the oldest space marine.
Dante is the oldest living space marine. (dreadnaughts are kind of considered dead as they have to sleep almost all the time.)

There is no known Space Marine to have died of old age.

Make of that what you will.

The Salamander they find in the tomb in Salamander is the closest I can think of to a Marine dying of (or rather becoming infirm and then dying because of) old age. But he had lived for several thousand years without the benefit of skipping time through Warp travel.

Dante is known to have been Chapter Master for around 1100/1200 years. He probably lived anything up to 400 years before that considering the experience needed to attain such a high rank.