The Oldest Living Creature On Earth

By Preston Dennett
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Published: Sep. 01, 2012
Words: 1,604 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781476464558

Short description

"The Oldest Living Creature on Earth" explores the mystery of how long life lasts. How old is the oldest human? What is the longest lived animal? How old can a plant get? This article explores all of this and more. Join us on a fascinating journey into the mystery of old age as we travel across the planet in search of the oldest living creature on earth.

Extended description

The Oldest Living Creatures on Earth
By Preston Dennett

All creatures on earth share one thing in common: a limited lifespan. Some insects live only a matter of hours. Only a few of earth’s creatures have exceeded a fifty-year life span. Elephants, parrots and sturgeon live up to 80 years. The longest-lived human reached an incredible age of 122 years. The bowhead whale has been recorded at 200 years of age. The quahog, or deep sea clam, has been known to live up to 220 years. The oldest-known living animal on earth is the great tortoise, with the oldest known specimen living to an amazing 250 years of age!
However, none of these come even close to the age of the actual oldest living creature. In fact, there are a few very rare creatures on earth whose lifespan exceeds thousands of years, or even millions. (Read more) The Oldest Living Creatures on Earth
By Preston Dennett

All creatures on earth share one thing in common: a limited lifespan. Some insects live only a matter of hours. Only a few of earth’s creatures have exceeded a fifty-year life span. Elephants, parrots and sturgeon live up to 80 years. The longest-lived human reached an incredible age of 122 years. The bowhead whale has been recorded at 200 years of age. The quahog, or deep sea clam, has been known to live up to 220 years. The oldest-known living animal on earth is the great tortoise, with the oldest known specimen living to an amazing 250 years of age!
However, none of these come even close to the age of the actual oldest living creature. In fact, there are a few very rare creatures on earth whose lifespan exceeds thousands of years, or even millions.
The actual oldest living thing on Earth was discovered in October 1999 in Carlsbad, New Mexico. Lying beneath an ancient bed of sea-salt, scientists retrieved an unknown species of microscopic bacteria. The bacteria was encased in a hard-shelled spore, and appeared to be in “suspended animation.” They took the sample into a laboratory, where they were able to revive it. The scientists were amazed that the bacteria was still alive because its age was estimated to be about 250 million years old. The oldest living creature was named Strain 2-9-3, or B. Permians.
Previously the record for oldest living creature was held by the 40-million-year-old bacteria, Bacillus sphaericus. In May of 1995, scientists found a sample of the creature in the stomach of a bee encased in amber. They were able to re-animate the bacteria in a laboratory.
While bacteria holds the record for longest-lived thing, some biologists argue that bacteria cannot hold the title for longest-lived creature because of its unicellular status.
This leaves the question open, what is the oldest living multicellular organism on earth? Actually, this question is not so easy to answer. In fact, there are several different creatures that are currently vying for first place status as the oldest living creature.

(read more about the search for the longest-lived creature on earth by purchasing the article. You will be amazed!)
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Tags

animal, science, plant, old, human, virus, longevity, quahog, biology, research, lifespan, preston dennett, oldest creature, oldest human, bristlecone pine, giant tortoise, longest lived, oldest, list of oldest living creature, the oldest living creature on earth, oldest plant

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