Is the oldest living thing on Earth a colony, a jellyfish, or a microbe?
In short: Determining the oldest living organism is not a simple matter of checking a birth certificate. The answer shifts dramatically depending on whether you define a living thing as a single individual, a clonal colony, or an entity capable of biological immortality. The reality of life on Earth is far more complex.
The definition of a living thing dictates the winner of the longevity title. If we consider clonal colonies, the competition is fierce. King Clone, a creosote bush in the Mojave Desert, has existed for nearly 12,000 years. Even more impressive is Pando, a male quaking aspen colony in Utah. Estimated at 80,000 years old, Pando is also the heaviest known living organism, with a mass of approximately 6 million kilograms.
When shifting the focus to single organisms, the title likely belongs to endoliths. These extremophiles reside a mile and a half beneath the ocean floor. They possess incredibly slow metabolisms, reproducing only once every few centuries or millennia. Because they remain continually active, they are currently considered the oldest living things on Earth. However, this status is complicated by the concept of dormancy. In 2011, Professor Brian Schubert identified bacteria trapped in 34,000-year-old salt crystals that were essentially in a state of hibernation, raising questions about whether organisms in stasis should be counted.
Biological immortality presents another challenge to our understanding of aging. Certain jellyfish, such as the hydra and the Turritopsis dohrnii, appear to defy the standard aging process. The Turritopsis, measuring only 4.5 millimeters, can revert to its polyp stage after reaching sexual maturity, effectively resetting its life cycle. Similarly, the hydra shows no signs of aging. While these creatures offer a form of biological immortality, they remain distinct from the ancient, continually active endoliths that currently hold the working title for the oldest living organisms.
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- Summary by Intellect · source: What Is The Oldest Living Thing?
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