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The Longest-Living Lifeforms
By Dirk Bansch
Humans, while amongst the longest-living animals on the planet, have a hard time cracking 90 years or older. The longest lived human was a French lady called Jeanne Calment, being 122 years old at the time of her death in 1997. Many animals can live longer than that, for example Bowhead Whales are know to have lived for at least 211 years, making them the longest-living mammals. The longest-living fish are Japanes Koi Carps, with one called Hanako reportedly living to the age of 226 years. Reptiles: An Aldabra Giant Tortoise named Awaita died at the age of 255 in 2006. Mollusks: A Quahog Clam's age was calculated to be 405 years by counting the rings on its shell. If we throw the net wider and include plants, the oldest known living individual tree is aptly called Methuselah and is a Bristlecone Pine with an age of more than 4,800 years. Some tree colonies can beat that age easily, though, for instance a Quaking Aspen colony in Utah has been estimated to be between 80,000 and one million years old. The most intetesting contestant for longest-living lifeform is probably the jellyfish species with the exciting name of Turritopsi nutricula, as it is potentially immortal! Immortal? Well, those jellyfish die quite often. They are eaten by predators or die of boredom when watching this season's TV shows, but they can basically reverse their aging process through a process called transdifferentiation, where one type of cell is transformed into another type of cell. Salamanders are known for this process, as they can regrow limbs. Turritopsi nutricula can regenerate its entire body over and over again and can switch from a sexually mature to a juvenile member of its species. Over and over again. Unfortunately, this process makes it impossible to determine the age of a single Turritopsi nutricula, but if we were to tag one of them and observe it for a few hundred thousand years, I'd bet that they would emerge the clear winner! ;-)
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Koi carp
Clam
Giant Tortoise
Turritopsis Nutricola
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Wow. I never expected jellyfish to have this amazing quality. I'm glad I joined Qondio, just for this intel. But what shall I do with this information? Set up a factory and start selling jellyfish extract? Dedicate the rest of my (short) life to the study of jellyfish? Or brainstorm a new TV show to keep the jellyfish entertained and alive?
 | | nick Feb 15, 2011 12:57 |  appreciated |
CONTRIBUTOR'S REPLY
Well, there are billions of jellyfish out there, so if you can create a TV show that keeps them interested, you'd be set for life! At least for your life!
Really interesting article! What's that red thing in the jellyfish? Looks like a bowl of jello.
Don't forget about single celled animals.
An amoeba, for example, is, to all intents and purposes, immortal - getting eaten does tend to change that status, though.
Amoebae live in water or very wet mud. They have a unique advantage over similar animals because they seem to be aware when their environment is going to dry up or otherwise become untenable and encyst themselves before it happens. The encysted amoebae can survive for many years and are often blown around by the wind until they arrive at more water.
Mature amoebae reproduce by splitting so the genome (which is hundreds of times bigger than that of a human being) is duplicated in two individual cells.
Since the duplication of cells does not really change the form of the genome, I suppose it could be said that, after splitting, a single amoena becomes two of itself.
Thank you for sharing this well researched and well written intel, Dirk.
I'm also loving the comments and I hope that the new react system doesn't take away from future comments.
Keep up the good work.
Best wishes.
Frederick
Interesting intel, I had a number of Koi carp some years ago in my aquarium and they never lived more than one year...obviously there was a reason for this and it wasn't their fault. Then of course, just imagine if and when scientists reproduce the very forumla that keeps these animals alive, and introduces that into humans...eternal life?....the mind boggles.
So many interesting minds working together to make this intel and all the comments one big blob of jelly knowledge. Eternal life? I guess there are different ways to interpret what that really means, my friends.
I like Nick's idea of selling jellyfish extract, might make a good online business. Stay forever young. Thank you for this intel. Love it.
Edmund Schulman, who made a study of these ancient trees, explained: “The bristlecone pine . . . seems to survive because of adversity. All the older individuals [pine trees] in the White Mountains are found near 10,000 feet [3,000 m] in a dry, rocky wilderness.” Although they must overcome adversity, these examples of endurance make the most of the two advantages they have. Their lonely location, where vegetation is sparse, protects them against forest fires, one of the biggest threats to mature trees. And their roots anchor them so firmly to the rock face that only an earthquake can shift them.
 | | Laraine Feb 16, 2011 06:26 | appreciated |
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