The animal kingdom features some unique long-lived species well beyond the average human lifespan. Humans live an average of 150 years, but some animals live up to 300 years. Some animals can stop or reverse aging altogether, even though centuries and millennia have passed in the lives of others.
Bowhead whales have one of the most extended life spans of all mammals. It is difficult to determine the exact lifespan of Arctic and subarctic whales. Still, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration claim that they may live over 200 years, based on evidence found in stone harpoon tips in some harvested individuals.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, rough-eye rockfish have at least 205 years. In the Pacific Ocean, you can find these pink or brown fish wherever California meets Japan. According to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, they can reach a length of 38 inches and consume shrimp and smaller fish.
They filter food particles from the water with the help of their bivalve-like structure. European and North American populations of these fish can be found in rivers and streams, as well as in the United States and Canada. World Wildlife Fund data suggests the oldest freshwater pearl mussel is over 280 years old.
Arctic and North Atlantic oceans are filled with Greenland sharks. The St. Lawrence Shark Observatory reports that they have a diet that includes a variety of animal species, including fish and marine mammals like seals.
As invertebrates, tubeworms have long life expectancies in a deep-sea habitat's cold, stable conditions. Several specimens of Escarpia laminate, a species of tubeworm found on the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico, have survived for more than 300 years, according to a 2017 study published in the journal The Science of Nature.
The North Atlantic Ocean is home to ocean quahog clams. In 2006, National Museum Wales in the UK found a 507-year-old ocean quahog clam off the coast of Iceland. Saltwater pearl mussels are more likely to live longer than freshwater pearl mussels, among the other bivalve species here.
Corals are composed of polyps, the exoskeletons of animals called invertebrates. Over time, this coral exoskeleton structure grows more prominent as the coral polyps multiply and replace themselves by creating a genetically identical copy. Among the longest-living corals are deep-water black corals, which can live for hundreds of years.
The animals in sponges are similar to those in corals, and they can live for thousands of years. Some sponges have lived for over 80,000 years. There are glass sponges that live for hundreds of years. According to NOAA, these creatures have skeletons that look like glass and are often found in the deep oceans.
Because of their potential for longevity, Turritopsis dohrnii is known as immortal jellyfish. The larvae of jellyfish continue to grow on the seafloor and become polyps. Eventually, these polyps form jellyfish, which will swim freely. Upon physical damage or starvation, Turritopsis dohrnii turns back into polyps, then later back into jellyfish, according to the American Museum of Natural History.
Invertebrates called Hydra to have soft bodies that resemble jellyfish. Hydras are also capable of living for eternity, similar to Turritopsis dohrnii. Live Science previously reported that hydroses do not seem to degenerate with age.
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