This Is the Longest Living Animal in the World

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
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This Is the Longest Living Animal in the World

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The lifespan of Americans has increased considerably over the last century. Lifespan at birth in 1920 was 53 years. That figure jumped to 79 years in 2020. Some people live much longer than that. The oldest American on record lived to be 119. But human lifespans are a fraction of those of some animals.

To find the longest living animal in the world, 24/7 Tempo reviewed data in the Human Ageing Genomic Resources database collection — specifically, the AnAge animal longevity database.

Cynthia Kenyon is a biochemist and geneticist working on unlocking the secrets of longevity. At a TED talk in Edinburgh, Scotland, eight years ago, she talked about aging. “There are some animals that don’t seem to age,” said Kenyon. “If you look at birds, which live a long time, cells from the birds tend to be more resistant to a lot of environmental stresses like high temperature, or hydrogen peroxide.”

About three-fourths of the species we considered are either fish or mammals like whales that live in the ocean. Size doesn’t appear to be a factor in how long animals live. Salamanders called olms that weigh less than an ounce can live as long as 102 years. The largest animal on Earth, the blue whale, can live to be up to 110 years. Despite its size, the blue whale is not among the most dangerous mammals on Earth.

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To identify the longest living animal in the world, 24/7 Tempo reviewed animal aging and longevity data from AnAge, a curated database on animal history, genomes, and longevity records, that is part of the Human Ageing Genomic Resources (HAGR) suite of databases. The longest-living animals were identified by examining their maximum longevity, supplemented by our analysis of specimen, kingdom, and genus. Only organisms from the Kingdom Animalia were included. Animals from the phylum Porifera, such as sponges, were excluded. Average adult weight of each organism that were not provided by AnAge were confirmed by a variety of internet sources. Only animals considered to have an acceptable data quality or higher by AnAge were included.

The oldest living animal in the world is the Ocean quahog clam. Here are the details:

> Oldest recorded: 507 years
> Average adult weight: 0.5 lbs.
> Habitat: Northern Atlantic Ocean

Methodology: To identify the longest living animal in the world, 24/7 Tempo reviewed animal aging and longevity data from AnAge, a curated database on animal history, genomes, and longevity records, that is part of the Human Ageing Genomic Resources (HAGR) suite of databases. The longest-living animals were identified by examining their maximum longevity, supplemented by our analysis of specimen, kingdom, and genus. Only organisms from the Kingdom Animalia were included. Animals from the phylum Porifera, such as sponges, were excluded. Average adult weight of each organism that were not provided by AnAge were confirmed by a variety of internet sources. Only animals considered to have an acceptable data quality or higher by AnAge were included.

Click here to read The 50 Longest Living Animals In The World

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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