All living organisms on the planet are subject to the aging process, but there are animals that live very long, neglecting this law of nature. The concept of “negligible aging” was introduced into scientific circulation in 1990, and has become the main argument in research aimed at increasing human life expectancy. Have you ever thought about which animal lives the longest? TheBiggest.ru was puzzled by this question and decided to conduct a small study in which animals with maximum life expectancy were examined.
1
Hummingbird / Trochilidae
Everything in the world and nature is known in comparison. The smallest hummingbird bird has the fastest metabolism among all animals. The aging process with such a quick metabolism in hummingbirds occurs rapidly. Some species of hummingbirds fly up to 100 wings per second. At the same time, their pulse can reach up to 20 beats per second, and they breathe with a frequency of up to 10 breaths per second. Now let's look at the photo - how does she manage to collect flower nectar and maintain her balance !?
A tiny bird burns about 2,000 calories per day. Hummingbirds live no more than 15 years. But for an organism with such small sizes, this is a huge time, and practically “bird immortality”. In general, birds live much longer compared with proportionate mammals.
2
Asian elephant / Elephas maximus
This good-natured giant is from India, and therefore is also called the Indian elephant. In size, it ranks second among land mammals after the African savannah.
There are several subspecies with small external differences. But everyone has one common sign - Asian elephants live up to 80-90 years old. Cases have been recorded when in captivity this species overcame the age limit of 100 years.
Did you know that the Indian elephant was the first animal in history to be executed by a court sentence by electric current? Want to know this interesting and tragic story? Then to you here!
3
Blue and Yellow Ara / Ara ararauna
A bright beautiful bird will grow up to 95 cm in length, and nests in the tropical forests of Latin America. It mainly chooses the coastal zones of rivers, and keeps alone, or chooses a mate.
Because of the special coloring, it often becomes an object of catch, so that later it becomes a pet. The first parrots of this kind were introduced to Europe in the 17th century. Both in captivity and in the wild, live an average of 116-118 years.
Now know that the cute parrot with whom they were photographed at the resort could witness two World Wars! By the way, on our site thebiggest.ru recently released material about the most bloody wars in the world.
4
Vulture Turkey / Cathartes aura
Another bird, the aging process of which is very slow, despite the rapid metabolism. It hails from open spaces of two American continents, and is considered the most widespread feathered predator of the western hemisphere.
As for age, life expectancy is not more than 23 years. But in wildlife there are individuals whose age exceeds one hundred years. This is an amazing phenomenon in wildlife with such a fast, even rapid metabolic process. It might have lived longer, but often collisions with airliners become the cause of death.
5
Termite Uterus
Surprisingly, the termite uterus is able to live up to 50 years. At the same time, she lays eggs throughout her life, being fertilized only once.
By the way, the uterus of an ordinary garden ant is also a long-liver among insects, surviving to 20 years, and sometimes more.
5
European Proteus / Proteus anguinus
In the underground lakes of the Balkans, you can find an amazing tailed amphibian, which, due to the pale pink coloring of the body, has received the nickname "human fish". It became an object of mass catch, because of which their population declined sharply. Today Proteus is protected, and it is forbidden to catch a unique strange creature.
It grows no more than 30 cm, while weighing only 130-140 grams. They live on average 60-70 years, but recent studies have shown that there are individuals that easily overcome the mark of 100 years.
6
Killer whale / Orcinus orca
The largest dolphin from a large detachment of toothed whales were also known to the inhabitants of ancient Greece and Rome. Pliny the Elder, an ancient Roman writer and scientist, gave them the name "orca", and the British called them killer whales.
They grow over 8 m in length, and weighs 6-7 tons. Their characteristic dorsal fin, which grows up to 1.5 m in males, is distinguished by killer whales - long-livers, as their average life expectancy is 103-105 years.
7
Galapagos tortoise / Chelonoidis elephantopus
We have written about these creations more than once on thebiggest.ru pages. Huge turtles in size live only on two remote archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean, and are rightly considered to be long-livers of our planet. Due to the sharp decline in populations, they are protected by law, and hunting is prohibited.
On average, the life expectancy of a graceful and majestic animal is a little more than 110 years, but some individuals survive to 170 years or more. Charles Darwin, developing his theory of evolution, visited the islands twice, where he studied the Galapagos turtles. In total there were 15 species of these amazing creatures, but today only 11 remain on the planet.
8
Tubular Worm / Lamellibrachia luymesi
Deep at the bottom of the seas and oceans live tubular polychaete worms feeding on special bacteria - endosymbionts. They grow very slowly, and grow up to 3 m long.
Excellent orderlies in the ocean, as they absorb hydrogen sulfide and other harmful substances. They live at a depth of up to 800 m, forming huge colonies of up to 100 thousand individuals. As for life expectancy, these deep-sea unusual worms live for more than 250 years.
9
Giant Tortoise / Aldabrachelys gigantea
Slow, but graceful endemic of the tropical island of Aldabra are a rare species of amazing land turtles, and are protected. They feed on tropical vegetation, and goats brought to the Seychelles are the main competitor in the food chain.
A large tortoise is striking in its size. But more surprising is her extraordinary longevity. In captivity, some turtles live up to 150 years. In 2006, the Advaita tortoise died, whose age was estimated at about 250 years.
10
Aleutian Sea Bass / Sebastes aleutianus
A resident of the sea depths of the Skorpenov family is rightfully considered the record holder for age indicators among fish and land inhabitants. The maximum age recorded by zoologists was 205 years. And perhaps this is not the limit!
The perch chose the northern latitudes of the Pacific Ocean as its habitat. Especially a lot of perches of this species in the Aleutian Islands, which is why it got its scientific species name.
11
Carp Koi / Cyprinus carpio haematopterus
Artificially deduced species, which, in order to obtain the right to be called Koi carp, undergoes 6 breeding selections. Conservatively, the Japanese recognize 14 standard types of domesticated ornamental fish.
A beautiful fish with a variety of colors lives very long. In 1966, Dr. Komei Koshizara decided to determine the age of a carp swimming in a pond near his grandmother's house. As a result of the study, the age of the fish was 217 years. This carp died in 1977 at the age of 226 years.
12
Red Sea Urchin / Strongylocentrotus franciscanus
The oldest inhabitant of the seas and oceans settled along the eastern coast of North America from Alaska to the shores of California. He loves calm shallow water, protected by rocks from stormy unrest.
The spherical body of the sea urchin is covered with small needles, which it uses for protection and hunting. An amazing animal develops throughout life. Growing up, the hedgehog remains “forever young”, since there are no obvious signs of aging. With such abilities, hedgehogs live, as oceanologists found, a little over 200 years old.
13
Tardigrades
These fantastic microorganisms at one time very much surprised biologists. And the popular magazine most-beauty.ru placed this animal on its list of the most amazing and unusual. And that's why. Having tiny sizes, not exceeding one and a half millimeters, they are one of the most hardy animals on the planet. Today, more than 400 species of these invertebrates are known.
They have no natural enemies, they are spread all over the planet, are able to survive in the most extreme conditions: from the peaks of the Himalayas to the inaccessible depths of the oceans. They are able to be in outer space for some time, and also fall into suspended animation for several years under adverse conditions. There is a known case when a piece of dried moss, which had been lying in a museum for 120 years, was lowered into the water. And one of the "dried up" tardigrades began to show signs of life. Although, she never came to life.
Despite the fact that many newspapers and non-fiction publications endowed tardigrades with immortality, scientists tend to believe that they live up to 200 years.
14
Clam Goodyak / Panopea generosa
The clam looks rather strange. With a relatively small bivalve shell, it has huge siphons. The largest of the digging mollusks, and the name in the language of the Indian tribes means "digging deep."
They live on average up to 146 years, and the oldest specimen was 160 years old during research. Scientists explain the longevity of Goodyakov as a slow metabolism, as well as the fact that the inhabitant of the deep sea has no natural enemies.
15
European pearl pearl / Margaritifera margaritifera
A clam with such a romantic name lives in fresh streams and rivers of Northern Europe and America. Due to active fishing, in order to obtain mother of pearl and pearl, the population of the species was on the verge of extinction.
In 2000, it was found that the pearl house lives 220-250 years. Russian researcher Valery Zyuganov conducted research, and found that these mollusks live longer in a series of freshwater invertebrate animals.
16
Bowhead whale / balaena mysticetus
Graceful mammal record holder not only in body size, but also in maximum life expectancy. Some individuals easily live up to 200 years. Sometimes individuals are caught in whose bodies fragments of harpoons of the 19th century are found.
The adult specimens studied by scientists whose age exceeded 100 years did not show signs of aging. It is interesting that the Greenland whale develops all its life, grows and multiplies. In the process of growing up, scientists do not record the inhibition of the basic functions of the body of a whale. That is, the aging process is very slow. All these signs make the whale one of the most amazing inhabitants of the planet.
17
Icelandic Cyprina / Arctica islandica
The inhabitant of the Arctic Ocean feeds by passing ocean water through special filters. On gill plates, residues of organic matter and plankton are retained.
This clam record for maximum life expectancy. Recent studies of shell deposits have shown that these mollusks live for over 500 years. The oldest of the experimental specimens was 507 years old at the time of the study. Scientists called him the nickname Min.
18
Bowhead shark
In the cold waters of the Arctic Ocean, a shark swims, which is older than all the vertebrate creatures that live on our planet. She was born in 1505, when Moscow became the capital freed from the Mongol yoke, Rus, and in Western Europe Leonardo da Vinci published his work “Code of Flight of Birds”, and 100 years later, the colonization of America by Europeans will begin.
The shark is 514 years old, and it is the oldest vertebrate on planet Earth. It is known that this species of sharks grows one centimeter per year, which made it possible to measure the age of an amazing specimen. If a huge animal could talk, how much interesting it would tell historians about past events.
19
Turritopsis
Representatives of this genus of invertebrate striking order Anthoathecata inhabit the seas of tropical and temperate climatic zones. These jellyfish, with a diameter of 4-5 mm, became widely known after the discovery, made in the 1990s.
It turns out that adults after puberty are able to again turn into polyps, thereby closing their life cycle. And this means that under favorable conditions, a jellyfish can probably live forever.
20
Common hydra
And this small invertebrate is really able to surprise! Firstly, hydras are not subject to aging. They die only from diseases or from the teeth of predators. Secondly, their ability to reproduce is very surprising. It turns out that under various conditions, they reproduce using various methods.
Hydras are hermaphrodites, in which both male and female reproductive cells mature. In adverse conditions, these animals use sexual reproduction, and in favorable conditions they can reproduce asexually. It looks like this: on the body of the mollusk a process appears, which develops into a new full-fledged individual and is separated from the parent. Hydras are also able to regenerate, and each cell of the animal can turn into a new individual. Well, this is absolutely fantastic!
Summarize
It is easy to see that humans are inferior in life expectancy to many birds, fish and, like him, mammals. But science is evolving. Now scientists easily extract the animal’s gene, and examine its age, and most importantly, study processes that allow aging to be overcome. At the very beginning of its conscious history, mankind is conducting research to find the elixir of youth, and perhaps in the future this dream will come true.
Authors of the article: Valery Skiba, Alexey Shcherbakov.
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