Long-lived animals: what is the most long-lived animal in the world?

Longevity has always been the hidden dream of mankind. The mystery of eternal life has long worried the minds of scientists, poets, writers (especially science fiction writers). At the root of this interest lies a simple curiosity, everyone wants to know about what was before and what will happen next. The duration of average human life has increased over the past decades, but still remains relatively small in the historical understanding of time, and those long-living animals that could tell a lot of interesting things do not have speech abilities, and therefore remain silent. Despite this, the level of modern science makes it possible to hear their soft voice, narrating about long-past centuries.

Why study animals that live long

One of the tasks of gerontologists, that is, scientists dealing with the problem of aging, is to determine which animal lives the longest, and to find out the reasons for such longevity.

It is not difficult to accurately determine the age of a captured individual for modern scientists. At their service, spectral analysis, other means of technology and even such simple methods as the usual arithmetic calculation of the number of layers on the scales of fish or the shell of a mollusk. Longevity animals, for all their taciturnity, can tell a lot about the chemical composition of atmospheric air and soil, their diet and even the temperature conditions of the periods of history remote from us. True, there are complications. The ability to regenerate cells (quality that is very important for preserving life) leads to the replacement of obsolete cells with newly formed ones, which is the reason for the loss of a certain piece of information.

Mass of the brain and longevity

The warm-blooded animals-long-livers, as a rule, have considerable sizes. The same applies to the mass of the brain. The fact is that this body is responsible not only for the thinking ability and storage of instincts, but also for regulating the metabolism in the body. Reptiles, especially turtles, also obey this law. There is even a direct dependence for each species of the animal world, according to which the average lifespan of the organism can be calculated by weight. However, there are other factors that affect this indicator.

Arctic sponge

The rate of metabolism is the parameter that determines the life span. In this sense, the record holder is the Antarctic sponge. Slow growth and low-temperature conditions set the pace at which this creature develops. This is the most long-lived animal on the whole planet, individual individuals are at the age of 1,500 years. Older than the Antarctic sponges there is no one to the Earth, nor can they see any sign of an impending demise.

Sea urchin

Approximately the same qualities are possessed by the red variety of the sea urchin. Most recently it was believed that their century is not long, not more than a decade and a half. This opinion was refuted after the individual was caught with a scribbled inscription on the capture of this fish in 1805 made by certain Lewis and Clark of Oregon. It turned out that these long-livers among animals have a completely unique property that makes them almost immortal, namely, the ability to constantly renew the cellular structure of the body. Due to this feature, they almost do not age.

Mollusk from the Ming Dynasty

British biologists have found an arctic mollusk, whose age exceeds four centuries. He was born in the era of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, which prompted scientists to give him such a name, although his homeland is the coast of Iceland. At the present moment it is the longest living animal in the world among mollusks. Age is defined fairly reliably, according to the number of lines on the shell. This creature lived under an eight-meter layer of cold Arctic water, being alone, which preserved it to our days, as none of the natural enemies managed to get to it. Now he became the subject of careful study, as well as a candidate for enrollment in the honorary list of the Guinness Book of Records in the nomination of long-livers.

Long-Lived Fish

Centenary pike, carp, catfish and pike are not uncommon. The legend of Friedrich Barbarossa contains interesting information for ichthyologists that the pike that was released into the lake four decades after the death of the emperor (and she was already at that age) was caught by fishermen. All would be nothing, but in the pond she spent 267 years, so she lived for at least three centuries. During this time, the fish reached a weight of 140 kg.

Artifacts found inside the caught huge sturgeon, sharks, pike and carp prove that one hundred years for them is not age.

Reptiles living long

Turtles are famous for longevity, and among them are elephants that inhabit the Galapagos Islands. It is they who are preparing the famous soup, and if the individual managed to avoid this sad fate, then she has every chance to celebrate her two-century anniversary. The recorded record of life expectancy is 255 years, it was so much "knocked" Advanta - the beloved tortoise of the English general Clive. When the colonizer died, she was transferred to the zoo of the city of Calcutta. The attendants of the zoo changed, epochal events took place. On the planet, wars and revolutions rattled, India gained state independence, and the old reptile continued to delight visitors with its excellent health. She died only in 2006.

Longevity-mammals

Greenland whales are real long-livers among mammalian animals. Their age can be judged by the tips of harpoons, stuck centuries ago during attempts to catch these ocean giants. The fixed lifespan of the whale, which was named Badoy, was 211 years.

There are long-living animals among land mammals, but their records are much more modest, and they are, rather, exceptions than the rule. For example, if, on average, the horse's age does not exceed 35 years, the English mare Bee reached 62. For a year, the personal horse Bonaparte Merengu managed to live more, which, even with special care, can be called an impressive achievement.

For 29 years, a cat called Spassk was pleased with its owners, for which he was posthumously awarded a record in the Guinness Book (1999).

Feathered long-livers

Of all the birds the symbol of wisdom is the crows. Some peoples consider it eternal, but it is not so. He lives for a long time, sometimes more than two centuries, but on average, the age of the bird reaches hundreds of years. Interestingly, in captivity, he lives longer than at large. Equally long is the existence of a falcon, a kite and, of course, a parrot. The latter is a frequent visitor in a human dwelling, so it is much easier to track the dates of his birth and death than in the case of wild birds.

Primitiveness or the secret of eternal life

Despite the long age, complex organisms can not be compared in terms of their ability to regenerate with primitive individuals. As it was recently revealed, this indicator of jellyfish is the most-most. Long-livers-animals living in the Caribbean, in general, are practically eternal. The secret is simple: they develop cyclically, reborn an infinite number of times. A young individual with eight tentacles and a millimeter in size gradually grows, increasing eightfold and acquiring new limbs, the number of which reaches ninety. Then the jellyfish suddenly begins to decrease, turns into a polyp, and then everything goes around in a circle. It is almost impossible to determine the life span of such an organism. And is it necessary? People will never be able to do this ...