The tubeworm Escarpia laminata that lives in deep sea cold seeps regularly reaches the age of between 100 and 200 years, with some individuals determined to be more than 300 years old. Some may live for over 1000 years.
Studies show that some corals can live for up to 5,000 years, making them the longest living animals on Earth. Some corals can live for up to 5,000 years, making them the longest living animals on Earth.
Oldest Animal in the World: Jonathan the Giant Tortoise
Helena Island, where he retired in 1882. His name is Jonathan; he lives on the governor's estate, and at 188 years old, scientists believe he's the oldest living land animal currently on Earth.
World's Oldest Water Lies At The Bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old.
Anything that tries to kill a tardigrade will quickly realize they encountered practically immortal animals. These creatures are capable of sticking around for thousands of years or even indefinitely “by entering a state of cryptobiosis, whereby their metabolism comes to a halt,” says Pastor.
Aquatic animals. Glass sponges found in the East China Sea and Southern Ocean have been estimated to be more than 10,000 years old. Although this may be an overestimate, this is likely the longest lived animal on Earth.
Glass sponges (Hexactinellida) are animals that live 10,000 years. Some scientists think that some glass sponges survive up to 15,000 years. Not only are glass sponges the longest-lived animal on earth, but they're also one of the oldest animal types.
To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.
Longest-Lived Reptile: The Giant Tortoise (300 Years)
And these turtles have lifespans that perfectly match their 500- to 1,000-pound weights: giant tortoises in captivity have been known to live longer than 200 years, and there's every reason to believe that testudines in the wild regularly hit the 300-year mark.
One study in the journal Aging Research Reviews notes a deep-sea sponge from the species Monorhaphis chuni lived to be 11,000 years old. Yes, a sponge is an animal—and it has a remarkable life-span.
Greenland Shark
Greenland sharks live for between 300 and 500 years and are the longest-living vertebrate. They take life very slowly, moving at an average of 0.76 mph. They grow about a cm every year, and females may not reach sexual maturity until they are 100 to 150 years old – that's one long childhood!
Antarctic Sponges – Anoxycalyx (Scolymastra) joubini, the volcanic sponge, is said to live for a minimum of 15,000 years. This sponge species lives in Antarctica and its growth is very slow.
Turritopsis dohrnii, dubbed 'the immortal jellyfish' may be the oldest living creature on the planet. When this jellyfish gets old, or hurt, or even too hungry, it uses a process called 'transdifferentiation' to regenerate its old cells. First, the jellyfish falls to the ocean floor, or coral reef.
Can jellyfish feel pain? Jellyfish don't feel pain in the same way that humans would. They do not possess a brain, heart, bones or a respiratory system. They are 95% water and contain only a basic network of neurons that allow them to sense their environment.
They don't have any blood so they don't need a heart to pump it. And they respond to the changes in their environment around them using signals from a nerve net just below their epidermis — the outer layer of skin.
Theoretically, this process can go on indefinitely, effectively rendering the jellyfish biologically immortal, although in practice individuals can still die. In nature, most Turritopsis dohrnii are likely to succumb to predation or disease in the medusa stage without reverting to the polyp form.
Even older fossils of familiar creatures have been found. For example, scientists have found extremely old fossils of the nautilus (500 million years old), jellyfish (550 million years old), and sponge (760 million years old). These simple creatures existed even before the horseshoe crab, and they still exist today.
According to one tradition, Epimenides of Crete (7th, 6th centuries BC) lived nearly 300 years.
Great White Shark
Great white sharks are arguably most famous for their teeth—all 300 of them that come lined in seven rows. Like other shark species, great white sharks shed and regrow teeth throughout their lives.
The current record for human lifespan is held by Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years and 164 days old. While this is an impressive achievement, it is still far from the 300-year mark. In fact, there is currently no scientific evidence to suggest that it is possible for humans to live for such a long time.
But then, in 1938, fishers hauled up a living coelacanth off the coast of South Africa. These ancient fish date back more than 400 million years, but there's a catch. The coelacanth species swimming in our oceans today aren't the same as the fossilized coelacanth species, which really did go extinct.
This is the oldest living creature on Earth: Scientists confirm jellyfish-like animal called a 'ctenophore' roamed the planet 700 MILLION years ago. Scientists have confirmed that the oldest living animal on Earth evolved from the first animals from which humans also came.
100,000 years ago, giant sloths, wombats and cave hyenas roamed the world. What drove them all extinct? Turn the clock back 1.8 million years, and the world was full of fantastic beasts: In North America, lions, dire wolves and giant sloths prowled the land.