Which turtles live the longest

In fact, scientists don't know the upper limit on many turtle species' life spans, simply because individual humans don't live long enough themselves to find out. So why do turtles live so long? There's an evolutionary answer and a biological answer, said Lori Neuman-Lee, an assistant professor of physiology at Arkansas State University who studies turtles and other reptiles.

Related: How long do tardigrades live? The evolutionary answer is relatively straightforward: Animals such as snakes and raccoons love to eat turtle eggs. To pass on their genes, turtles have to live a long time and breed frequently, sometimes multiple times per year — and lay a lot of eggs.

One clue to turtles' longevity lies in their telomeres, structures composed of noncoding strands of DNA that cap the ends of chromosomes , Neuman-Lee said. These structures help protect the chromosomes as cells divide.

Over time, telomeres get shorter or degrade, which means they can no longer protect their chromosomes as well, leading to issues with DNA replication. And errors in DNA replication can lead to issues such as tumors and cell death. But turtles exhibit a lower rate of telomere shortening compared with shorter-lived animals, Neuman-Lee said. Biologists have yet to figure out why A.

Determining the lifespan of a microscopic organism is a tricky matter: in a sense, all bacteria are immortal, since they propagate their genetic information by constantly dividing rather than, like most higher animals, having sex and dropping dead.

The term "endoliths" refers to bacteria, fungi, amoebas or algae that live deep underground in the clefts of rocks. Studies have shown that the individuals of some of these colonies only undergo cell division once every hundred years, endowing them with lifespans in the 10,year range.

Technically, this is different from the ability of some microorganisms to revive from stasis or deep-freeze after tens of thousands of years; in a meaningful sense, these endoliths are continuously "alive," albeit not very active.

Perhaps most importantly, endoliths are autotrophic, meaning that they fuel their metabolism not with oxygen or sunlight, but with inorganic chemicals, which are virtually inexhaustible in their underground habitats. There's no really good way to determine how old your average jellyfish is; these invertebrates are so fragile that they don't lend themselves well to intensive analysis in laboratories.

However, no list of the longest-lived animals would be complete without a mention of Turritopsis dohrnii , a jellyfish that has the ability to revert back to its juvenile polyp stage after reaching sexual maturity, thus making it potentially immortal. However, it's pretty much inconceivable that any T. Ironically, too, it's nearly impossible to cultivate T.

Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Share Flipboard Email. Bob Strauss. One way to estimate age is to base it on fragments of harpoons left in the blubber of captured animals — one individual had harpoon fragments dating back to the s!

Another way is to use DNA to estimate lifespan, with scientists suggesting bowhead whales can live to the grand old age of !

Greenland sharks live for between and years and are the longest-living vertebrate. They take life very slowly, moving at an average of 0. Despite their huge size and long lifespan though, these sharks have been a mystery to scientists for years. It was only recently that they discovered a new method of estimating age that involves radiocarbon dating the lens of the eye. New tissues are added to the lens every year and it is possible to tell the age by how much carbon isotope is present in the tissues.

Ocean Quahogs are an edible clam with an impressive lifespan. Many will live to see their th birthday and the oldest one on record was years old when it was caught off the coast of Iceland in Scientists were able to determine the age by counting growth rings on the shell, similar to how we age trees.

They can also find out other information too. How the shells form over time tells scientists how the oceans have changed throughout the years — they are a living creature and a picture of life in a changing world! Can you imagine being immortal? Reaching old age and then instead of dying, going back and starting again as a baby? To us, this is the stuff of dreams. For the immortal jellyfish, it is real life. These amazing animals start their life as larvae, known as planula, swirling around in the ocean.

They then settle on the seafloor and become static polyps before transforming into swimming medusa.