What Animal Lives to Be the Oldest
What Animal Lives to Be the Oldest
The longest-living animals on Earth
The animal kingdom boasts some incredibly long lifespans that far exceed the average human being's. While humans may have an "accented limit" of 150 years, this is merely a blink of an eye compared with the centuries and millennia that some animals live through; and some animals tin can even terminate or reverse the crumbling procedure altogether.
Although in that location are very long-living land animals (the oldest tortoise, for example, is nearly 190 years old), none of them make this list — the true age champions all live in water. From old to oldest, here are 10 of the longest-living animals in the world today.
1. Bowhead whale: potentially 200+ years sometime
Bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) are the longest living mammals. The Arctic and subarctic whales' exact lifespan is unknown simply rock harpoon tips found in some harvested individuals prove that they comfortably alive over 100 years, and may live more than 200 years, co-ordinate to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The whales have mutations in a gene called ERCC1, which is involved with repairing damaged DNA, that may assist protect the whales from cancer, a potential cause of expiry. Furthermore, another gene, chosen PCNA, has a section that has been duplicated. This gene is involved in jail cell growth and repair, and the duplication could slow aging, Live Science previously reported.
Related: Natural rates of crumbling are fixed, written report suggests
2. Rougheye rockfish: 200+ years quondam
Rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) are one of the longest living fish and have a maximum lifespan of at to the lowest degree 205 years, co-ordinate to the Washington Department of Fish and Wild fauna. These pink or chocolate-brown fish live in the Pacific Ocean from California to Japan. They grow up to 38 inches (97 centimeters) long and swallow other animals such as shrimp and smaller fish, according to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wild animals in Canada (COSEWIC), an independent advisory panel that assesses the status of species threatened with extinction in Canada.
Related: Is fish caught off Alaska 200 years old?
3. Freshwater pearl mussel: 250+ years onetime
Freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) are bivalves that filter particles of food from the water. They mainly live in rivers and streams and tin can be found in Europe and Due north America, including the U.Due south. and Canada. The oldest known freshwater pearl mussel was 280 years old, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). These invertebrates have long lifespans thanks to their low metabolism.
Freshwater pearl mussels are an endangered species. Their population is declining due to a variety of human-related factors, including impairment and changes to the river habitats they depend on, according to the International Marriage for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Related: Underwater maids: Mussels and clams could mop up waterways
4. Greenland shark: 272+ years old
Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus) alive deep in the Chill and N Atlantic oceans. They can grow to be 24 anxiety (7.iii meters) long and have a diet that includes a multifariousness of other animals, including fish and marine mammals such as seals, according to the St. Lawrence Shark Observatory in Canada.
A 2016 study of Greenland shark centre tissue, published in the periodical Scientific discipline, estimated that these sharks tin take a maximum lifespan of at to the lowest degree 272 years. The biggest shark in that study was estimated to be virtually 392 years former, and the researchers suggested that the sharks could possibly accept been every bit much as 512 years old, Live Scientific discipline previously reported. The age estimates came with a degree of dubiety, but even the everyman estimate of 272 years notwithstanding makes these sharks the longest living vertebrates on Earth.
Related: No, scientists haven't found a 512-twelvemonth-old Greenland shark
5. Tubeworm: 300+ years old
Tubeworms are invertebrates that accept long lifespans in the common cold, stable environment of the deep bounding main. A 2017 study published in the journal The Science of Nature found that Escarpia laminata, a species of tubeworm living on the body of water floor in the Gulf of Mexico, regularly lives up to 200 years, and some specimens survive for more than 300 years. Tubeworms have a low death charge per unit with few natural threats, such as a lack of predators, which has helped them evolve to accept such long lifespans.
Related: Boundless rug of worms coats bizarre deep-sea vent
vi. Sea quahog clam: 500+ years old
Bounding main quahog clams (Arctica islandica) inhabit the Due north Atlantic Ocean. This saltwater species tin live even longer than the other bivalve in this listing, the freshwater pearl mussels. One sea quahog clam found off the coast of Iceland in 2006 was 507 years old, co-ordinate to National Museum Wales in the U.K. The ancient clam was nicknamed Ming equally it was built-in in 1499 when the Ming Dynasty ruled China (from 1368 to 1644).
7. Black coral: 4,000+ years old
Corals look like colorful, underwater rocks and plants, but they are actually made up of the exoskeletons of invertebrates called polyps. These polyps continually multiply and supplant themselves by creating a genetically identical re-create, which over time causes the coral exoskeleton structure to grow bigger and bigger. Corals are therefore made up of multiple identical organisms rather than beingness a single organism, similar Greenland sharks or body of water quahog clams, so a coral's lifespan is more of a squad effort.
Corals can live for hundreds of years or more, but deep-water blackness corals (Leiopathes sp.) are among the longest-living corals. Black coral specimens found off the coast of Hawaii accept been measured to be 4,265 years old, Live Science previously reported.
eight. Drinking glass sponge: 10,000+ years former
Sponges are made up of colonies of animals, similar to corals, and can too alive for thousands of years. Glass sponges are among the longest living sponges on Earth. Members of this grouping are often institute in the deep bounding main and take skeletons that resemble drinking glass, hence their name, co-ordinate to NOAA. A 2012 study published in the journal Chemical Geology estimated that a glass sponge belonging to the species Monorhaphis chuni was nearly eleven,000 years old. Other sponge species may be able to live even longer.
nine. Turritopsis dohrnii: potentially immortal
Turritopsis dohrnii are chosen immortal jellyfish considering they can potentially live forever. Jellyfish starting time life equally larvae, earlier establishing themselves on the seafloor and transforming into polyps. These polyps then produce costless-swimming medusas, or jellyfish. Mature Turritopsis dohrnii are special in that they can plough back into polyps if they are physically damaged or starving, according to the American Museum of Natural History, and so later return to their jellyfish land.
The jellyfish, which are native to the Mediterranean Body of water, tin echo this feat of reversing their life bike multiple times and therefore may never dice of old age under the right atmospheric condition, according to the Natural History Museum in London. Turritopsis dohrnii are tiny — less than 0.2 inches (4.5 millimeters) beyond — and are eaten past other animals such every bit fish or may die by other means, thus preventing them from actually achieving immortality.
10. Hydra: besides potentially immortal
Hydra is a group of minor invertebrates with soft bodies that look a bit like jellyfish. Like Turritopsis dohrnii, Hydras likewise have the potential to alive forever. Hydras don't testify signs of deteriorating with age, Live Scientific discipline previously reported. These invertebrates are largely fabricated up of stalk cells, which continually regenerate through duplication or cloning. Hydras don't live forever under natural conditions because of threats like predators and affliction, but without these external threats, they could be immortal.
Related: When blown apart, hydra re-assemble
What Animal Lives to Be the Oldest
Source: https://www.livescience.com/longest-living-animals.html
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