5 animals with incredibly long lifespans

6/3/2020

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by Fredy

Nature Story: 5 animals with incredibly long lifespans

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Besides humans, what are some of the longest-living creatures on our planet?

If you read a lot about wildlife, try to ace this fun trivia quiz.

#5 Pink cockatoos are one of the longest-living pets

Nature Story: pink cockatoo lifespan — wikimedia CC BY

These charismatic parrots make wonderful companions and surprise with their mental abilities. Cookie, the oldest recorded cockatoo in captivity, died in 2016 at the impressive age of 82.

#4 Being the largest living species of tortoise on Earth, the Galápagos giant tortoise is also one of the longest-living vertebrates

Nature Story: galapagos tortoise lifespan — wikimedia CC BY-SA

The oldest known individual died in 2006 at the estimated age of more than 170 years!

💡 Did you know?

besides having incredibly long lifespans, living creatures can be biologically immortal;
for example, the immortal jellyfish, native to tropic waters, is capable of extreme regeneration. When starving or injured, it can transform dead cells into healthy ones and regenerate its entire body;
anyway, it's not impossible to kill them, so most often they end up being eaten by predators.

#3 A harpoon dating back to the 19th century was found in a bowhead whale's blubber in 2007

Nature Story: bowhead whale lifespan — wikipedia CC BY-SA

Being the fifth-largest marine mammal, it's also claimed to be the longest-living mammal on Earth.

#2 Among all vertebrate species, the Greenland shark has the longest recorded lifespan

Nature Story: Greenland shark lifespan — wikimedia CC BY-SA

The oldest individual, born approximately between 1504 and 1744, was somewhere between 270 and 510 years old! These sharks, being among the largest extant shark species, grow very slowly and reach sexual maturity at the age of 150.

By the way, do you know what is the largest fish in the world?

#1 Thanks to their slow life style, ocean quahogs can survive for centuries

Nature Story: ocean quahog lifespan — wikimedia CC BY-SA

The oldest individual of this mollusk species, aged 512, was collected in 2006. It became the oldest non-colonial animal ever discovered.

Was this information new for you? Would you add any other animals to this list?

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What are your thoughts on this subject?

18 Comments

Peter Beard

The "pink" cockatoo is actually a Major Mitchell cockatoo

Susan Golebiewski

Wow! This was great information. I never knew about these. Thank you.

Cheryl McMeekin

Great question and very interesting info, didn't know about several of these.

ronbt

There is a jellyfish that reverts back to a polyp. It's called the infinity jellyfish

JRW

Sulphur-crested cockatoos have been known to live over 100 years. Much older than the pictured Major Mitchel. My late grandfather, had a Sulphur-crested cockatoo that he first had as a young boy. When he died at 85, the bird was still alive and well. Last I knew, it was still alive and well a few years later with one of his daughters.