What is the oldest living thing on earth?
93Is it a person? a tree? a spore? a bacteria? or something in the back of the refrigerator? There are few certain answers but that doesn't keep us from guessing. Actually scientists in a variety of fields from geology to forestry have been searching and measuring.
Blood Falls supports life?
Oldest person?
Not counting Methuselah, we humans have a hard time cracking 100 years of age. Most people don't make it that far; those that do get their pictures in the paper.
Sketchy records and anecdotal claims can make age verification very difficult. The Gerontology Research Group researches these claims and tracks people over 110 years old. Here is their list of validated living supercentenarians...
Life expectancy is a moving target, thankfully moving upward. The world average is 67.2. Try to be born in Japan which leads the list of countries at 82.6. The shortest expectancy is Swaziland at 39.2.
1.5 million years is a long time to hide...
Svientists have found bacterial activity in a reddish feature on the side of Taylor Glacier on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, in a place called Blood Falls. The red comes from iron, and apparently so does the life force for this bacterial life form.
Scientists speculate that these microorganisms use iron that leaches from the glacial bedrock to perform a series of metabolic reactions that produce a life energy. The oxidized iron creates the red hue that leads to the Blood Falls name.
Oldest individual plant?
We're talking about a single plant here; one that reproduces externally - flowers, seeds. There are a few candidates including a creosote bush in the Mojave Desert, placed by some at 11,000 years old. However, most scientists agree on the Bristlecone Pine. Genus: Pinus, Species: longaeva.
How old? Dr. Edmund Schulman dated an individual tree in the White Mountains in California at over 4,700 years. This tree is nicknamed Methuselah, and it's location is kept secret to protect it.
Amazingly, this long living species, seems to thrive in the some of the harshest conditions. They are found in several US mountain ranges, typically at the 11,000 foot level. That is some very windy, very cold territory!
Oldest living organism?
The oldest may also be the biggest, and it's another tree - the Quaking Aspen. Individual aspen don't have an unusually long life, but the total organism lives on and on. Unlike other trees that grow from seeds, this aspen reproduces by sending out lateral roots, that then pop up new aspen tree stems. They look like independant trees but are actually like branches of the main plant. The process is called suckering.
How old? The Pando in Utah is thought to be 80,000 years old. How big? The Pando is estimated to weigh 6,615 tons. That's one big sucker!
Another old sucker?
In Tasmania, we have the Kings Holly which is another sterile plant with no flowers, no seeds. The Kings Holly reproduces by root suckering and produces one big plant.
How big? 1-2 kilometers. How old? Estimated at 43,000 years, by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.
Oldest icky thing?
Then we have some spores contained in sea salt in Carlsbad, NM. Scientists can crack open these spores and find bacteria in suspended animation. Reactivate the bacteria and we have a living thing that can reproduce, B. permians.
How old? Try 250 million years!
Ooops - this one is also a little controversial as some other scientist think that no bacteria can remain viable this long, and that Mr. B. permians is actually contamination from the salt that isn't that old.
Happy as a clam...
A quahog clam was dredged from the Arctic waters off the coast of Iceland. It's age was calculated to be 405 years! Apparently you can see and count growth lines on the clams shell. Scientists are studying these growth lines as part of research on climate change.
This particular clam ends up in the record books instead of on the dinner table.
Longest living things that walk, creep or fly?
Records like these generally come from zoos and aquariums. Conditions in the wild would alter numbers, but these are good for order of magnitude:
Mammal, excluding human - an elephant lived for 69 years.
Bird - a turkey buzzard lived to 118 years and a swan to 102.
Reptiles - we have a giant tortoise that crept around for 152 years.
Amphibians - a giant salamader lasted 55 years.
Fish - no surprise that a catfish lived 60 years.
Insect - cicada is on the list for 17 years, but I saw somewhere that a queen ant lived for 25 years, as her colony came and went.
Hmmm, it seems like being big (elephant, giant tortoise) and beligerant (swan) helps. Being a good sleeper works for the cicada.
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Comments
Believe you should include the 'termite queen' with her 50 year life span.
And I think your hub is setting a record for oldest hub still getting comments. Congratulations!
We once went to Sequoia National Forest, and were in awe of the trees - many of which were over 2000 years old. Interesting stuff!
I also read just a few months ago that the oldest living human on earth currently lives in Montana. He is 107 years old.
the oldest fish is a type of carp that has lived over 200 years
Very interesting article! Thank you!
Nice hub.
Very intewresting page
thank you
some cool things, thanks for sharing them
Recent studies indicate that a person identified as "Steve H." is the oldest living thing on Earth. He is a little hard of hearing, possibly due to the Big Bang being so loud, but is a kind, gentle soul.
its very strange unbelieveable.
i once had a goldfish that lived 32 seconds in the toilet bowl
For a long-long life! Cheers :)
I like this info a good bit. I am only 15 but my teacher has me doing a researh project on this kind of stufff (and ect..). It has helped me a lot! I never knew most of this stuff and never was really interested but now that I have actually read it, it isn't that bad. It was more interesting than just readin on and on about stuff you really didn't want to know. Thanks for all the help!
Nice stuff!!
very interesting!!
thank you
That is cool of how long these people and organisms lived.
thats awesome stuff!~!
Also should consider mushrooms, which are among the largest and oldest lifeforms on land.
I've heard that sturgeon gain about a pound a year and some weigh about a ton. How old are the oldest fish?
Depends on when the first half of the oatmeal was eaten...
I've got a bowl of half eaten cereal next my bed that has mold in it that has GOT to be like 8 months old! Is there a record for that?
I like this hub a lot. Thanks for writing!
i am very strange , it is interresting thanks for sharing
http://hubpages.com/_rkut/hub/Indias-Oldest-Person
and how convenient that he's from a country that doesnt keep accurate records...
No offense, my wife is from India, but there is really nothing that would ever make me believe that this guy is anywhere near as old as he says he his...
Besides, old people lie a lot. It's actually fairly natural as I see it, you get old, start to forget stuff...you make one thing up and someone believes it, then it snowballs from there.
Plus, the older (or younger, if you're like me and were in trouble constantly when you were a little bugger) you are, the more you have to lie about.
Anyway, you need a reliable source to be taken seriously.
if a tree lived for 80,000 years but didn't a metorite or metoer or what ever hit earth and destroyed mostly everything
India's Oldest person died at 139 Years - 19.08.2008 Born on May 28, 1870, at Rajgarh in Rajasthan's Alwar district, Habib Mian had been suffering from fever and a bout of dysentery.He had joined the band of the erstwhile Jaipur Royal family as a clarinet player and retired from service in 1938. At that time, he received a pension of just Rs 1.46, which was later increased to Rs 2698.http://hubpages.com/_rkut/hub/Indias-Oldest-Person
Hi jon, said clam is now part of our story... thanks for the feedback.
i heard that a clam was found to be 405 years old, that should be in your record book
Interresting. Thanks for sharing.
I am 43 years old and 10 out of 10 people said I look like I am 32 years old. Well...I hope I get to look like 75 when I am 102 years old. Just to let you kow that I eat alot of fruits and vegetables, very little meat. Also I am 99% stress free eventhough I work in an environment that tends to have lots of stress, computers. Thanks and long live to all.
Barbara Walters is havng a special this week to tell us how we can all live to be 150 years old - is that a good thing? :D
It makes you wonder how we would treat the earth and our fellow earthlings if we knew we were going to be here centuries instead of decades.
Thanks Kimberly and Raphael. I hope you live that long!
COOL! I WISH I WILL LIVE THAT LONG.<:
Very interesting. I love this kind of stuff! Debra
Thanks to ripplemaker, and Isabella - glad you enjoyed it.
Tom, your comment made my day! Love, Grandpa...
Lissie, thanks for linking up - great pictures of the fossil bed. For the record, stromatolites may be the oldest surviving fossil type, but I don't think there are individual cyano-bacteria that have been continuously knocking around that long...
I think the stromatolites win myself http://hubpages.com/hub/Oldest-Living-bug for the photos!
Great job grandpa! I've never heard of anything that lives that long. Talk to you soon!
Great hub! I remember the oldest person who lived whom I know personally is the mother of my dad's friend. She died at age 100. She was still alert and walked fast. Truly amazing.
Wow, very interesting hub!
Harlan, thanks for the nice comments on the writing. A writer wants to be read and enjoyed.
I really like your writing style with its humorous delivery of very interesting information.
Thanks compu-smart, who doesn't want to live longer. Lots of great Hubs on the topic, so just added a links capsule pointing to Hubs by our resident expert livelonger, Jimmy, Dalene...
Hi livelonger, glad you checked in; was thinking of you whilst creating this Hub.
This kind of stuff really interests me very much..
Nice nugget of info;)
Ha ha, this is right up my alley of interest! What an interesting comparison. Did not know about suckering, and how one tree can live on via its "clones" for thousands of years.
Thanks Guru-C! A long life to us all!
Great Hub with a long life!
Hubs on living longer
- Longevity Smoothie by LiveLonger
Create a quick, antioxidant-rich smoothie before you take on the world. - 15 Ways to Live Longer by jimmythejock
The average life expectancy for women in the UK is 81 years old,whereas for the average man it is 76 years old according to the national statistics. Scientists are always telling us new ways to help increase... - Caloric Restriction Doesn't Extend Lifespans by livelonger
More proof that we're not rats! Caloric restriction (CR), widely touted to increase lifespans by 30%, doesn't seem to work for human beings, despite doing wonders for rats, mice, and spiders. - Chocolate: Anti Aging ... by Dalene Entenman
For chocolate lovers, chocolate is a richly satisfying and smoothly decadent delight of euphoric experience. For anti-aging health enthusiasts and baby boomers in search of foods that slow the aging process...
Acknowledgements
I got the idea for this HubPage from Clay Thompson's article in the Arizona Republic. He has a daily column called Valley 101. He answers readers questions. He tends to pick odd questions, and then print his version of an answer - often interesting, usually humerous. He has one great job - research questions on the Internet all day and then write up the easy and interesting ones!
Animal, bird, insect numbers came from the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, click here for full list.
old news...
- Saline County Century Farm: 'Experiment Farm' one of county's oldest, still has vestiges of early daysThe Marshall Democrat-News5 hours ago
An original rock fence built in the 1800s is still visible on part of The Experiment Farm near Napton, one of the oldest and longest-lasting family farms in Saline County.
- Aleen Leslie dies at 101; screenwriter wrote radio's 'A Date With Judy,' which became a hit movie and TV sitcomLos Angeles Times8 hours ago
Also a novelist and playwright, she died three days short of her 102nd birthday and was the oldest living member of the Writers Guild of America. Aleen Leslie, a screenwriter from the 1930s to the 1950s who wrote the popular "A Date With Judy" radio show that became a hit film and early TV sitcom, died three days before her 102nd birthday.
- Cuban state media say documents indicate woman is 125, perhaps oldest person on EarthSun-Sentinel6 hours ago
HAVANA (AP) — Relatives in eastern Cuba claim to have held a 125th birthday party for a woman named Juana Bautista de la Candelaria Rodriguez, but it is not clear if she is really that old.
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AlanSwenson says:
9 hours ago
Super interesting, reminds me of those books I had when I was a kid, something like 20 grossest facts about people. I still love crazy factoids!