It would not be wrong to say that mortality is a universal law; whatever takes birth dies after a period of time though life span of living things vary. Talking of animals, some live for a few hours while others has a life extending over centuries, which is something hard to believe. In fact, a large number of creatures have an amazingly long life span.
Here is a list of top 10 longest living animals on the earth:
10. Geoducks
Geoducks are salt water clams, which have an average life span of 160 years, which makes them one of the longest living animals in the world. These clams, which are found in Puget Sound, have a distinctive feature called siphons, which are like necks extending to a length of 1 m.
9. Tuatara
The next name on the list of top 10 longest living animals on the earth is that of tuatara, the dinosaur like animals with only two surviving species at present. With a life span ranging between a hundred and two hundred years, these are the longest living vertebrates on the planet.
8. Lamellibrachia Tube Worms
Lamellibrachia Tube Worms are under sea creatures which live at great depths reaching the ocean floor. Though their average life span is believed to be nearly 170 years, some scientists are of the opinion that it extends up to 250 years.
7. Red Sea Urchin
Next on this list comes another sea creature called the red sea urchin, which is native to the Pacific Ocean, mostly found in the West Coast along North America. These creatures live in shallow areas, most of the time near the rocky ones where the low tides reach down to 90 m. They can even be seen crawling along the ocean floor with the help of their spines. Red sea urchins can live up to 200 years of age.
6. Bowhead Whales
The credit of being the longest living mammal on the planet goes to the bowhead whales, which are also known as the Arctic whales. Many of them are believed to have surpassed the age of 200 years, while the oldest known amongst them has been 211 years of age.
5. Koi
Most of the animals included in the list of top 10 longest living animals in the world are the natives of water and so is the next one, the famous koi fish. A variety of common carp, koi fish is domesticated for ornamental purposes and has a life span of 200 years on an average. The oldest one called Hanako had lived as long as 226 years.
4. Tortoises
Tortoises have always been considered as one of the longest living creatures on the earth and rightly so, because they are the vertebrates with the longest life span, an average of 200 years. The oldest of this species was Adwaita, an Aldabra giant tortoise, which was believed to have lived for an incredible 250 years when it died in 2006.
3. Ocean Quahog
Featuring next on the list of top 10 longest living animals on the earth is the ocean quahog, another species of clam, scientifically known as Arctica Islandica. They have concentric rings on their shells, which according to scientists are the annual age marks just as found in trees. Some of the species have been believed to have lives up to an age of 400 years.
2. Antarctic Sponge
It is really hard to believe but this almost immobile creature called the Antarctic Sponge, found in the Antarctic Ocean, has some specimens surpassing the age of 1550 years. The creature exhibits a very slow growth rate, which is attributed to extreme low temperatures of its habitat.
1. Turritopsis Nutricula Jellyfish
Amazingly, this species of jellyfish has been known to be immortal because it has the capability of returning from its mature stage to the immature polyp stage and this process continues on and on. This makes the Turritopsis Nutricola Jellyfish the undisputed leader on this list.
Looking at this amazing list of long lived animals, one can just wonder more and more about the power and diversity of Mother Nature.
Santosh Kumar is a Professional SEO and Blogger, With the help of this blog he is trying to share top 10 lists, facts, entertainment news from India and all around the world.