List of longest-living organisms

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This is a list of the longest-living organisms that is, the individuals (in some instances, clones) of a species. This may be, for a given species

  1. Today's oldest known living individual
  2. The all-time "record holder", such as longest lived human Jeanne Calment or longest lived cat Creme Puff

Ordinarily, this does not consider the age of the species itself, comparing species by the range of age-span of their individuals, or the time between first appearance (speciation) and extinction of the species.

Biological immortality

Hydras may not grow old.

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If the mortality rate of a species does not increase after maturity, the species does not age and is said to be biologically immortal. There are many examples of plants and animals for which the mortality rate actually decreases with age, for all or part of the life cycle.[1]

If the mortality rate remains constant, the rate determines the mean life-span. The life-span can be long or short, even though the species technically "does not age".

  • Hydras were observed for four years without any increase in mortality rate.[2]

Other species have been observed to regress to a larval state and regrow into adults multiple times.

  • The Hydrozoan species Turritopsis dohrnii is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again. This means that there may be no natural limit to its life-span.[3] However, no single specimen has been observed for any extended period, and it is impossible to estimate the age of a specimen.
  • At least one hydrozoan (Laodicea undulata[4]) and one scyphozoan (Aurelia sp.1[5]) can also revert from medusa stage into polyp stage.
  • The larvae of carrion beetles have been created to undergo a degree of "reversed development" when starved, and later to grow back to the previously attained level of maturity. The cycle can be repeated many times.[6]

Revived into activity after stasis

This Judean Date Palm sprouted from a 2000-year-old seed.
  • Various claims have been made about reviving bacterial spores to active metabolism after millions of years. There are claims of spores from amber being revived after forty million years,[7] and spores from salt deposits in New Mexico being revived after 240,000,000 years.[8][9] In a related find, a scientist was able to coax 34,000-year-old salt-captured bacteria to reproduce and his results were duplicated at a separate independent laboratory facility.[10]
  • A seed from the previously extinct Judean date palm was revived and managed to sprout after nearly 2,000 years.[11]
  • Silene stenophylla was grown from fruit found in an ancient squirrel's cache. The germinated plants bore viable seeds. The fruit was dated to be 31,800 years old ± 300 years.[12]
  • In 1994, a seed from a sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera), dated at roughly 1,300 years old ± 270 years, was successfully germinated.[13][14]
  • During the 1990s Raul Cano, a microbiologist at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, revived yeast trapped in amber for 25 million years.[15] Cano went on to found a brewery and crafted an amber ale with a 45-million-year-old variant of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.[16] Cano's work and initial success was achieved with the help of entomologist George Poinar, the scientist whose 1982 paper on reviving specimens[17] influenced Michael Crichton to write his award winning Jurassic Park.[18]

Clonal plant and fungi colonies

Pando is a clonal colony of quaking aspens that is at least 80,000 years old.

As with all long-lived plant and fungal species, no individual part of a clonal colony is alive (in the sense of active metabolism) for more than a very small fraction of the life of the entire colony. Some clonal colonies may be fully connected via their root systems, while most are not actually interconnected, but are genetically identical clones which populated an area through vegetative reproduction. Ages for clonal colonies, often based on current growth rates, are estimates.[19]

  • Pando is a Populus tremuloides (Quaking Aspen) tree or clonal colony that has been estimated at 80,000 years old.[20] Unlike many other clonal "colonies" the above-ground trunks remain connected to each other via a single massive subterranean root system. Whether it is to be considered a single tree is disputed, as it depends on one's definition of an individual tree.
  • The Jurupa Oak colony is estimated to be at least 13,000 years old, with other estimates ranging from 5,000 to 30,000 years old.[21]
  • A huge colony of the sea grass Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea is estimated to be between 12,000 and 200,000 years old. The maximum age is theoretical, as the region it occupies was above water at some point between 10,000 and 80,000 years ago.[22][23][24]
  • Lomatia tasmanica in Tasmania: the sole surviving clonal colony of this species is estimated to be at least 43,600 years old.[25]
  • Eucalyptus recurva: clones in Australia are claimed to be 13,000 years old.[26]
  • King Clone is a creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) in the Mojave desert estimated at 11,700 years old.[27] Another creosote bush has been said to be 12,150 years old, but this is as yet unconfirmed.
  • A Huon Pine colony on Mount Read, Tasmania, is estimated at 10,000 years old, with individual specimens living to over 3,000 years.[28]
  • Old Tjikko, a Norway Spruce in Sweden, is a tree on top of roots that have been carbon dated to 9,550 years old. The tree is part of a clonal colony that was established at the end of the last ice age. Discovered by Professor Leif Kullman, at Umeå University, the tree is located in the county of Dalarna in Sweden. Old Tjikko is small, only 5 metres (16 ft) in height.[29][30][31][32]
  • A box huckleberry bush in Pennsylvania is thought to be perhaps 8,000 years old.
  • "Humongous Fungus," an individual of the fungus species Armillaria solidipes in the Malheur National Forest, is thought to be between 2,000 and 8,500 years old.[33][34] It is thought to be the world's largest organism by area, at 2,384 acres (965 hectares).

Individual microorganisms

Some endoliths have extremely long lives. In August 2013 researchers reported evidence of endoliths in the ocean floor with a generation time of ten millennia.[35] These are slowly metabolizing, not in a dormant state.

Individual plant specimens

The Llangernyw Yew may be the oldest tree in Europe.

Humans

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Life expectancy by region
  • Jeanne Calment, lived to the age of 122 years, 164 days, becoming the oldest recorded human who ever lived. She died on August 4th, 1997.[43]
  • The longest-living person who is still living on Earth and known is Susannah Mushatt Jones

These are single examples, for a broader view see Life expectancy (includes Humans)

Terrestrial and pagophilic animals

Muja, the world's oldest alligator
  • Muja, an American alligator from Belgrade Zoo, is considered to be the oldest alligator in the world.[50] Muja is more than 80 years old.[51]
  • A female blue-and-yellow macaw named Charlie was reportedly hatched in 1899, which would make her 116 years old, as of 2015. Her age has not been independently confirmed and the claim may not be reliable. She is claimed to have formerly belonged to Winston Churchill, but Churchill's daughter denies the claim.[52]
  • Lin Wang, an Asian elephant, was the oldest elephant in the Taipei Zoo. He was born in January 18th, 1917 and died in February 26th, 2003 at 86 years, surpassing the previous record of 84. Normally elephants live up to 50 years, while their maximum life-span is generally estimated at 70.
  • A greater flamingo named Greater died at Adelaide Zoo in January 2014 at the age of at least 83.[53]
  • Thaao, an Andean condor, died at the age of 80.[54]
  • Cookie, (June 30th, 1933- ) an Australian born Major Mitchell's cockatoo resident at Brookfield Zoo, Illinois, is the oldest member of his species in captivity, at a verified age of 90.
  • A female Laysan albatross named Wisdom successfully hatched a chick at Midway Atoll in February 2014, at the age of 63. As of 2014, she is the oldest known wild bird in the world.[55]
  • The oldest living horse on record was named Ol' Billy. Bill was allegedly born in the year 1760 in London, England. Bill died in 1822 at the age of sixty-two years. Henry Harrison, an occupant of London during the time, had also allegedly known Ol' Billy for fifty-nine years until Bill's death.[56]
  • Creme Puff, a cat owned by Jake Perry of Austin, Texas, was born August 3, 1967, and died three days after her 38th birthday on August 6, 2005.[57]
  • The oldest bear on record was Andreas, a European Brown Bear, living in the ARCTUROS bear sanctuary in Northern Greece. He was at least 50 years old at the time of his death.
  • Debby, the polar bear, an inhabitant of the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg, Canada was the oldest polar bear and third oldest bear species on record when she died in 2008, at the age of forty-two years.[58]

Aquatic animals

Giant barrel sponges can live more than 2000 years.

See also

Further reading

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References

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