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Harriet was a Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise and the world's oldest living creature. The giant tortoise was taken from the Galapagos Islands by naturalist Charles Darwin in 1835 as a personal pet during his five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle. On that voyage was a young naval officer, John Clements Wickham. After studying Harriet whilst formulating his theory of evolution, Darwin handed the tortoise on to Wickham when the latter sailed for Brisbane to take up a post as police magistrate. Over the years, the tortoise was carefully tended, and in 1958, was moved to naturalist David Fleay's wildlife park on the Gold Coast. She was moved to Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast in 1987 where she enjoyed celebrity status until her death on 23 June 2006.

The Marine Clam Quahog has a life span of 220 years. Researchers at Bangor University in the United Kingdom recently counted 405 annual growth rings in the shells of a quahog clam from the Arctic. There may well be older individuals.

However, in terms of the first "animal", i.e. vertebrate, to appear on Earth (i.e. the oldest type of animal)this would be fish. Fossils of fish have been found which date further back than fossils of larger organisms, and regardless of whether one ascribes to the Scientific or Creationist view, evidence seems to suggest that fish were the first animals.

Other evidence suggests that the first organism on earth may well have been a flagellated eukaryote. Their closest known living relatives are the choanoflagellates, collared flagellates that have a morphology similar to the choanocytes of certain sponges. Molecular studies place animals in a supergroup called the opisthokonts, which also include the choanoflagellates, fungi and a few small parasitic protists.
the giant galapogos land tortiuse
Oldest mammal - Whale Approx 180 years documented age

Oldest animal overall- Giant turtle -- documented over 200 years.

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