The worlds longest living creatures

By Gaby Leslie | Yahoo! News Tue, Oct 4, 2011

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Some of the following creatures are known to have dated back further than the Middle Ages making great grandparents seem like youngsters. rom the youngest to the immortal! check out our round"up of nine animal species that hold records for their freakishly long life spans. Jeanne Louise Calment: 122-years-old

#he first spot on the list belongs to the world$s longest living person ever. %orn on &' ebruary '()* and passing away on August +! '99)! this rench woman holds the longest confirmed lifespan in history! living to the grand old age of '&& years ',+ days. -utliving both her daughter and only grandson! Madame .alment$s genes may have contributed to her longevity since her father lived to 9+ and her mother (,. According to several news reports! she is the last person lucky enough have met the artist /incent /an 0ogh! who allegedly visited her father$s fabric shop in '(((.

Activist Neil Ro inson carries 2!-l lo ster "eorge onto the roc#s in $enne un#%ort& 'aine( "eorge the lo ster: 1)!-years-old A 1ew 2ork restaurant was lucky enough to offer the most mature crustacean ever caught on their menu. At a massive &0lbs and born in '(,9 " the same year as leading men! such as %ritish Prime Minister 1eville .hamberlain and rench painter 3enri Matisse! giant lobster 0eorge was picked up from the icy waters of the Atlantic. Manager of .ity .rab and Seafood restaurant! who bought 0eorge for 4'00 56,(7 said that a lobster$s age can be estimated by weight! with weight increasing by around a pound for every seven to ten years of life. ortunately for 0eorge! after animal rights organisation PE#A received a tip"off from punters about the tiny tank it had to live in! PE#A managed to persuade the Park Avenue eatery to release 0eorge back into the wild. "eoduc#: 1*!-years-old 8ecognised as a large edible saltwater clam with a si9"inch"long shell and a neck that e9tends up to about four feet! geoducks 5pronounced :gooey$ ducks7 are a native species of the Pacific 1orthwest of the ;S and coastal areas of %ritish .olumbia! .anada. #he geoduck market is predominantly based in Asia with an e9panding one in the ;S as the American sushi industry has sparked a rise in domestic demand for the odd"looking seafood delicacy. %urrowed in deep muddy waters! the oldest living geoduck was recorded to be ',0"years"old! but on average they live between '+0 and ',0 when not hunted by predators or eaten by humans. According to scientists! a geoduck<s longevity is the result of low wear and tear as they don$t have to do much

in order to survive. +owhead whale: 211-years-old =ubbed! the :old men of the sea$ by a ;S reporter! bowhead whales are the oldest mammals on Earth living on average between '00"&00 years. -ne individual whale is documented to have lived to the ripe old age of &''. %y tracking changes in amino acids in the lenses of their eyes! scientists are able to determine the appro9imate ages of bowheads. %iologist .raig 0eorge found the key to their long e9istence. 3e said> ?#he bowhead<s tough environment " cold water without abundant food available forces it to maintain a great body mass! an effective system for fat storage and an efficient mechanism to keep warm. #he stress of living in arctic waters may nurture the whale<s pattern of slow growth and long life.@ An the past! bowheads have been hunted to near e9tinction. $oi ,ish: 22*-years-old Boi are a domesticated kind of the common carp kept for decoration in artificial rock pools and ponds! there are types which are known to age to more than &00 years. -ne of the longest living vertebrate ever recorded! :3anako$ translated into English as : lower Maid$ is proof that women do live longer than men. #he '*lb female fish from Capan died at the age of &&, in '9)). %orn in ')*'! &* years before American independence! her old age could be accounted for by removing one of her scales and e9amining it e9tensively! similar to counting rings of a tree. Tortoises: 2---years-old

A Dookeeper tends to Addwaita! a giant Aldabra tortoise! at the Alipore Eoological 0arden in .alcutta! Andia.

A tortoise$s long life span has been linked to the reptile$s slow metabolic rate. E9perts reckon as a general rule! animals with a high metabolic rate die early! and those that burn energy more slowly can live on for decades. 8eports in the media are freFuently claiming that the world$s oldest tortoise has died G take 3arriet and #u$A Malila for e9ample! who died at ')* and '((" years"old respectively.

%ut! Addwaita! a tortoise that lived in %engal is estimated to have been around &** when it died! making it Hust a toddler around the time of the American 8evolution. Ats age was verified by a techniFue called carbon dating! confirming Addwaita as one of the oldest creatures of modern times. 3is long life ended when his shell cracked and a wound developed some months before his death from liver failure in March five"years"ago. .uahog: )1!-years-old Another seafood delicacy sets a record in the animal kingdom. An &00)! a specimen of clam was plucked off the coast of Aceland. %y drilling through its cockle shell and counting each ring! the Arctica Aslandica was claimed to be the longest"living animal species ever recorded by researchers at %angor ;niversity. 1icknamed :Ming$ after the .hinese dynasty that ruled when the clam was born and its Siamese"like appearance! the clam was estimated to be aged between +0* and +'0"years"old. ;nfortunately! poor Ming died as it was being assessed by researchers.

Antarctic s%onge: 1--!-years-old -ne specimen of this slow"growing Antarctic -cean dweller is estimated to be over '**0"years" old. #o put it in perspective! the specimen could have been living in +,'A= G the same year that on March ')th St Patrick died. #hough it may look more like a plant as it is immobile! scientists do class this sponge as a living creature with its lack of e9ertion and e9tremely slow growth contributing to its scarily long life span.

Turri%tosis Nutricula: /mmortal #his remarkable Hellyfish"like creature tops our list as the world$s oldest living creature in terms of having no natural limit to its life span. #he uniFue species is considered to be the world$s only biologically immortal animal! according to marine biologists at the Smithsonian #ropical Marine Anstitute in lorida. A native to the warm salt waters of the .aribbean seas! the animal has been spotted far from its home in Spain! Ataly! Capan! and the Atlantic side of Panama in recent times as it is thought they are silently invading the oceans by attaching themselves to ballast water tanks of ships. So what is its secret to anti"agingI #he tiny transparent sea creature! which is about the siDe of a fingernail! can regenerate its entire body over and over again through a process called :transdifferentiation$ as it is able to turn one type of cell into another.