Mar 10, 2025, 06:52 PM IST
Here are eight animals species that probably live longer than human beings.
Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth. An elephant’s resting heart rate is typically between 25 and 35 beats per minute (BPM), which is much lower than a human’s resting heart rate of 60–100 BPM. Elephants typically live 60-70 years in the wild but can live into their 80’s in captivity with proper care.
If they survive to adulthood, saltwater crocodiles normally live for over 70 years. Accurate information on their maximum lifespan is largely lacking. However, records of two especially long-lived crocs suggest they can live to over 120 years.
The oldest living land animal is a 190-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise named Jonathan. The tortoise lives on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean after having been brought there by people from the Seychelles in 1882. Jonathan's age is an estimate, but a photograph of him taken between 1882 and 1886 shows he was fully mature - at least 50 years old - in the late 19th century.
The red sea urchins found off Washington and Alaska probably live more than 100 years, and the longest-living individuals in British Columbia, Canada, may be around 200 years old.
Bowhead whales are the longest-living mammals. The Arctic and sub-Arctic whales' exact life span is unknown, but stone harpoon tips found in some harvested individuals prove that they comfortably live over 100 years and may live more than 200 years.
Greenland sharks live deep in the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They can grow to be 24 feet (7.3 meters) long and have a diet that includes a variety of other animals, including fish and marine mammals. A 2016 study of Greenland shark eye tissue, published in the journal Science, estimated that these sharks can have a maximum life span of at least 272 years.
Ocean quahog clams (Arctica islandica) inhabit the North Atlantic Ocean. This saltwater species can live even longer than the other bivalve on this list, the freshwater pearl mussel. One ocean quahog clam found off the coast of Iceland in 2006 was 507 years old.
Turritopsis dohrnii is called the immortal jellyfish because it can potentially live forever. Jellyfish start life as larvae before establishing themselves on the seafloor and transforming into polyps. These polyps then produce free-swimming medusas, or jellyfish. Mature T. dohrnii are special in that they can turn back into polyps if they are physically damaged or starving.
This information is not DNA's opinion but obtained from media reports