Animals, plants, and other organisms on Earth have widely different lifespans, as for example many species of insects live just a few days, while some plants can survive for centuries or even millennia. Humans can live longer than most other animals, as many people can reach an age of over 100 years. The oldest person ever whose age has been verified is Jeanne Calment, a French woman who was born in 1875 and died in 1997, at the age of 122 years old. At the time of writing, the oldest living person is Maria Branyas, a Spanish-American woman born in 1907.
The animals that surround us usually have shorter lifespans than humans. Rodents tipically don’t live very long, and hamsters are probably the pet with the shortest lifespan, as the oldest ever recorded only reached an age of 4 years and 6 months. The oldest known living mouse died in 2023, aged 9 years and 210 days, while the longest-living rabbit reached an age of almost 19 years old. Some dogs have lived over 20 years, and the record for the longest-living dog is held by Bluey, an Australian Cattle Dog that died in 1939 at an age of 29 years and 160 days. Meanwhile, cats have longer lifespans than dogs, and the oldest ever recorded and verified was Creme Puff, a mixed tabby domestic cat that lived in the United States and died in 2005 at the age of 38 years and 3 days. Among common pets, a goldfish named Tash might be the oldest ever recorded, as it lived for more than 43 years.
Other animals that aren’t pets can live even longer. The oldest recorded bat was at least 41 years old, while the oldest polar bear reached the age of 42 and the longest-living rhyno passed away at 45. The oldest bear on record was at least 50 years old when it died, while an orangutan reached the age of 55 and the oldest hippopotamus died at 61. Horses usually live 25 to 30 years, but the longest living horse on record, named Old Billy, was born in 1760 and died in 1822 at the age of 62 years old. Other than humans, chimpazees might be the longest-living hominids, as the oldest ever recorded reached an age of 68 years old. Elephants are among the mammals with the longest lifespan, as they can live for more than 60 years. The oldest recorded elephant was born around 1930 and died in 2019, at an age of 88 or 89 years old.
Some smaller animals can also have surprisingly long lives. Spiders usually live less than year, but some species can live over 20 years, and the oldest known spider was 43 years old when it died from a wasp sting. Instead, a beetle is known to have lived as a larva for 47 years before emerging and dying shortly after.
The oldest confirmed wild bird in the world is an albatross nicknamed Wisdom. She was born around 1951 and was spotted alive and healthy as recently as December 2023, which makes her over 72 years old. However, she isn’t the oldest bird ever recorded, as some individuals in captivity have lived longer lives. For example, a condor is known to have lived around 80 years, while a cockatoo named Cookie died in 2016 at the age of 83. The precise age of the oldest flamingo ever recorded is unknown, but it was at least 83 years old when it died in 2010. Meanwhile, some sources claim that an Australian cockatoo was 120 years old when it died in 1916, but this is unverified.
Wisdom with one of her chicks in 2011, she is the oldest known wild bird in the world, at over 72 years old.
Some reptiles can have really long lives, and a few species can even exceed human lifespans, sometimes by a large margin. The oldest crocodile in captivity was 85 years old when it passed away in 2015, while an alligator named Muja was born in 1937 and is still alive at the time of writing, which makes him 87 years old. Meanwhile, tortoises are known for having extremely long lifespans that can reach well over 100 years. A Greek tortoise named Timothy was 165 years old when it died in 2004, while Harriet is the longest living Galápagos tortoise, as it lived for an estimated 175 years. Harriet was probably born around 1830 and is thought to have been collected by Charles Darwin five years later, although doubt has been cast on this claim. After living most of her life in Australia, Harriet died in 2006.
However, she isn’t the oldest tortoise ever recorded. A radiated tortoise called Tu’i Malila is thought to have been approximately 188 years old when she died in 1966, while an Aldabra giant tortoise named Adwaita is claimed to have lived for at least 255 years. This individual died in 2006 and was said to have been born around 1750, although this claim is not verified. The oldest verified terrestrial animal is a Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan, who was born around 1832 and is still alive as of 2024, which makes him 192 years old.
Jonathan is the oldest verified terrestrial animal, and is currently 192 years old (Luke McKernan, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0).
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Aquatic animals can live even longer than terrestrial ones. In 2008, a red lobster caught in the wild was estimated to be 140 years old, and was later released, so it might have lived for much longer afterwards. Some species of clams can live for more than 160 years, and the oldest ever recorded was 507 years old when it was captured, while sea urchins can often reach an age of over 200 years. Meanwhile, the bowhead whale is likely the longest-living mammal, as some individuals have been estimated to be over 210 years old. However, the vertebrate with the longest lifespan is the Greenland shark. In 2016, a study found that a member of this species had an estimated age between 272 and 512 years old.
Marine tubeworms can also reach over 300 years, and some might even live for more than 1,000 years. Corals have extremely long lifespans too, and may live more than 2,000 years. The oldest recorded marine organism is a specimen of the Leiopathes glaberrima species of black coral, which is believed to be almost 4,300 years old. The Antarctic sponge Cinachyra antarctica is also known for having an extremely slow growth rate, and one specimen was estimated to be 1,550 years old, while the giant barrel sponge of the Caribbean can live for more than 2,000 years. Although not confirmed, some species of glass sponges might live for up to 10,000 years, and are likely the longest-living animal on Earth.
Ages over 1,000 years are more common among plants. Some species of olive trees can live for more than 2,000 years, while a ficus planted in 288 BCE is still alive today, at 2,312 years old, which makes it the oldest known planted tree. The longest-living recorded baobab died at the age of around 2,450 years old, while the oldest-known living sequoia, named President, is currently about 3,240 years old. Meanwhile, the Llangernyw Yew in Wales and the Cypress of Abarkuh in Iran are both believed to be between 4,000 and 5,000 years old. The oldest verified individual tree is a pine located in California and nicknamed Methuselah, which is estimated to be 4,856 years old.
Methuselah stands out among other much younger trees. At 4,856 years old, it is oldest verified individual tree (Oke, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0).
However, plants can live much longer as clonal colonies. Clonal colonies of plants and fungi are groups of genetically identical individuals connected to each other. They function as a single organism, as no specimen is independently alive and each one only lives for a fraction of the lifespan of the entire system. These clonal colonies can live for several thousands of years, as for example a colony of seagrass located off the Australian coast is over 4,500 years old. The Humongous Fungus is instead a clonal colony of mushrooms estimated to be between 2,000 and 8,500 years old, and the largest organism in the world, at almost 10 km2. Meanwhile, the largest tree in the world is Pando, a colony of quaking aspen trees that covers 4.36 km2 and is believed to be up to 14,000 years old. Other clonal colonies of plants have been estimated to be over 10,000 years old, as a colony of Lomatia tasmanica which is thought to be 43,600 years old. A huge colony of the seagrass Posidonia oceanica in the Mediterranean Sea could be up to 200,000 years old, although this claim is disputed.
While these colonies are usually huge, the longest-living life forms on Earth are instead microorganisms. Some species of bacteria like the Actinomycetota have been estimated to be 500,000 years old, while endoliths, organisms that live inside rocks and minerals, can survive maybe for millions of years while slowly metabolizing, without being in a dormant state. In 2020, marine biologists found aerobic microorganisms living in a state of quasi-suspended animation in sediments under the seafloor that are over 100 million years old. These could be the longest-living life forms on Earth.
However, some life forms can also spend time in metabolically inactive state and later be revived. If this time is considered part of their lifespan, these species can live for millions of years. For example, spores preserved in amber have been revived after 40 million years, while bacteria from salt deposits have been reactivated after 250 million years. Some microorganisms found in halite are over 800 million years old, but it is still uncertain if they can be revived. This feature can also be found in multicellular organisms, as nematode worms have been revived after 46,000 years.
Finally, some species simply don’t age, and their mortality rate doesn’t increase with time. This state is called biological immortality. Creatures with this characteristic are the Hydra, a genus of tiny aquatic animals that don’t age and can also regenerate damaged parts of their bodies. Another biologically immortal animal is the Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the immortal jellyfish. These animals can revert to a larval state after becoming adults, and can repeat this cycle again and again, meaning that there is no limit to their potential lifespan. However, this process has not been observed for an extended period of time, and these jellyfish are more likely to fall victim of predators or diseases.
The Turritopsis dohrnii, or immortal jellyfish, is biological immortal (Bachware, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).
