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The oldest living animals (excluding sponges and coral colonies) would include

  • Arctic clams (300+ years),
  • Koi fish (200+ years)
  • Galapagos tortoises (several 150 to 250 years)
  • Bowhead whales , apparently the longest lived mammals, as one
  • Methuselah (tree) 4,842 Years old and is still living
  • Prometheus 4,862 oldest of the oldest but cut down in 1964 :(

specimen was estimated at 211 years old

Among the oldest individual trees are the sequoias and bristlecone pines of California, the yew trees of Wales and Scotland, and the olive trees of Europe. One bristlecone has been dated to around 5,000 years of age.

However, some tree species such as aspens can branch off as clones from a central plant, so colonies can be very large and very old. A colony of Quaking Aspen called Pando in Oregon is at least 80,000 years old. A Lomatia species known as Tasmanian Kings Holly has a lifespan of about 300 years, but a known clone has been dated from fossil leaves to be 43,600 years old, and possibly as old as 135,000 years.

Living things that have been around the longest

Cyanobacteria appeared on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago, just 300 million years after the oldest rocks. Scientists have isolated some very old fossils, including a magnetobacteriafrom more than 2 billion years ago.

(see the related link)

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13y ago

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