Speaking of long-lived animals, many people will think of turtles. In fact, the word "turtle" can broadly refer to the entire order Turtles, and the lifespans of different orders vary.Generally, the larger turtles and turtles can live to triple digits, while some smaller turtles can only live to be less than fifty years old.
Note: Turtle in the narrow sense only refers to the species of turtle, whose scientific name is Mauremys reevesii, commonly known as tortoise. Its lifespan can exceed thirty years but rarely reaches three digits.
One of the few examples is a released turtle specimen discovered in 1971 by the Shanghai Museum of Natural History in the "Twenty Years of Daoguang", which may have lived more than one hundred and thirty years.
A turtle commonly known as a tortoise. Image source: Photographed by the author at Zhengzhou Zoo
And among the larger longevity turtles,alberta giant tortoise(Aldabrachelys gigantea)There is a record of life span exceeding 190 years, this "big tortoise" who is over 190 years old is named Jonathan.
And before Jonathan,Radiated tortoise lives to be 188 years old, there are alsoAnother Albertan giant tortoise lived to be 255 years old(Although this is somewhat uncertain).
An Alberta giant tortoise thought to have lived 255 years. Image source: funfactz
This lifespan is obviously longer than human lifespan.The previous record for the longest human lifespan was set by Frenchman Carmen - 122 years and 164 days.The average human life expectancy is about 85 years (this is based on relevant research in 1990).
In addition, on January 1 this year, Lin Shemu from Fujian Province passed away. She was born on June 18, 1902. Her lifespan based on calculated values exceeded Carmen's record, but it has not yet been included.
Of course, if there are any animals that live longer than those long-lived turtles, there must be some. Who can break this record? Let's look down.
animals that live longer than humans
If we want to say that the longevity among animals exceeds these big tortoises, the common red-brown carp around us must be an example.
A reddish-brown carp named Hanako raised by the president of Nagoya Women's University in Japan is,He lived a long life of 226 years, born in 1751 and died in 1977, which is indeed a long life.The other fish that lived with it also lived to be over 144 years old, based on the age of their scales.
Of course, carps are not the only ones that can live long.Greenland sharks in the Arctic Ocean can live up to 500 years, making them one of the longest-lived vertebrates., they do not reach sexual maturity until they are around 150 years old.
In 2016, based on the measurement of the carbon 14 isotope in the shark's body, some scientists discovered that the shark was probably born during the Ming Dynasty.
The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) is one of the longest-lived mammals, able to live up to two hundred years.
There were even genome-based studies in 2020 that measured they could live to a life expectancy of around 268 years.
A 2024 study found that other baleen whales also have long-lived members. For example, the southern right whale and the North Atlantic right whale can live to be 130 years old (these two are closely related to the bowhead whale).
Bowhead whale. Image source: Wikipedia
Southern right whale. Image source: Wikipedia
However, during the Industrial Revolution, due to the impact of the whaling industry, the two types of right whales mentioned above did not have such longevity records. This is inseparable from the "young death" caused by human attacks. The academic community is still learning about the longevity of other baleen whales.
In addition to other reptiles and birds other than turtles, there are also some animals that are not as long-lived but their life span is not inferior to that of humans.
For example, in 2024, people observed a Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) named "Wisdom".At the age of 74, he started breeding a new life with his "object", yes, it still lays eggs and gives birth to babies in its advanced age.
In 1916, a sunflower-cockatoo died in captivity at the age of 120, losing all of its feathers during the last part of its life.
Among crocodiles, Cassius the Gulf Crocodile died in Australia at the age of over 120 years old in November 2024, while Henry the Nile Crocodile lived at least 124 years old and still lives in what is now the Republic of South Africa. The lizard's distant relative, the spotted lizard, can also live to be 120 years old.
Spotted wedge-toothed lizard. Taken at Wellington Zoo, New Zealand
This is true for vertebrates, but what about other animals? Some people say that the Arctic clam (Arctica islandica) has the longest lifespan among molluscs.
In 2006, based on age determination of an Arctic clam's growth lines, scientists found that it was born during the Ming Dynasty and was 507 years old.
It got the new name "Ming", but the measured age also became the age of "Ming", because it was killed by scientists when its age was measured.
Arctic clam. Image source: Wikipedia
How is the age of an animal calculated?
So how do you calculate the age of an animal? Some people will use the growth rings on fish scales or look at the relative growth of dentine on mammal teeth. Both methods are similar to calculating the age of a tree. The width of the fish scale pattern can be used to infer its growth rate. The growth pattern of the bivalve mentioned earlier is also a typical example.
The quality of the fish’s otoliths and the growth rings of the gill bones are also one of the ways to judge the age of the fish.
The age of the fish’s growth rings and scales. Image source: oceanecology.ca
Orca teeth. Image source: oceanactionhub.org
If you put the age on a turtle, you can judge it from the number of concentric rings on the carapace.
In recent decades, scientists have also used feces from chimpanzees, Japanese macaques and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins to determine age based on methylation modifications in fecal DNA sequences. People also infer that the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin has a lifespan of forty or fifty years.
The longevity of some animals depends on human "rings" or other markers. For example, in 2007, academics discovered that a bowhead whale that had been stabbed with a javelin in the 1880s continued to live for more than a hundred years after being stabbed.
The Laysan Albatross mentioned earlier was recorded using a bird band for the first time in 1956. The estimated age at that time may have been about five years old. It has been tracked since then, and scientists have changed its tags six times.
Why do they live so long?What are the genetic secrets?
Since they live so long, is there any longevity gene behind this? Or a secret related to DNA repair? Or is it the environmental reason for their survival?Gotta look at the genome.
For bowhead whales, they have the CIRBP protein gene to repair DNA damage. The ERCC1 gene on the body, which is related to DNA excision repair, is also different from other mammal genes.The function of these genes is mainly to improve the whale's resistance to cancer.
After all, animals that are larger and live longer have more cells in their bodies and are more likely to encounter cell cancer during their long lives - but this is only theoretical. The risk of cancer in animals like elephants and large baleen whales is very low, much lower than that of many small and short-lived animals.
Note: A 2025 study concluded that larger animals have a higher incidence of benign and malignant tumors. However, the study also found that elephants have rapidly evolved into larger animals in such a short period of time and have evolved better anti-tumor mechanisms.
At the same time, large tortoises have genes that inhibit tumor production. Different from other relatively short-lived animals, they have more powerful genes that inhibit tumor production.
Elephants also rely on a large number of TP53 genes in the body to produce a large amount of P53 protein. This protein allows cells with damaged DNA and possibly cancer to be repaired or die directly.
The picture shows Peto's paradox, which means that animals with larger weights originally have a higher probability of developing cancer, but in fact, based on observations of large animals such as Asian elephants, their probability of developing cancer is lower than predicted (hadrosaurus dinosaurs are also large, but based on fossil-related pathological observations, their probability of developing cancer is high). Image source: sciencealert.com
In addition to anti-cancer, anti-aging genes can also be related to longevity. The spotted wedge-toothed lizard has many genes that "control" selenoproteins in its body. It just so happens that this type of protein is also closely related to preventing the body from being oxidized and aged by reactive oxygen species.
The long-lived Pacific rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus), which lives more than two hundred years, also relies on tumor suppressors and genes that regulate the immune system.
Pacific rockfish. Image source: Wikipedia
Will the life span of animals being raised and managed be affected?
Cao Cao once said, "The period of growth and shrinkage is not only in heaven. If you nourish your body, you can live forever." The life span of living things is related to innate conditions, but acquired nutritional conditions and external factors will also affect whether living things can die.
In this regard, some animals that have achieved longevity miracles in captivity are typical examples.
The famous giant panda has created many examples of longevity over 30 years in captivity, such as the prototype of the Beijing Asian Games mascot Panpan, a giant panda named Bass, and An An, a male giant panda who died in Hong Kong, China in 2022, also died at the age of 35.
An An, the giant panda. Image source: virginia.arlingtoncardinal
Under captive conditions with medical care, food security, and fewer natural predators, some birds have achieved record lifespans. For example, Charlie, the blue-winged macaw, lives about fifty years longer than its relatives in the wild.
This scolding parrot. Image source: esato
Those dogs that have been domesticated in captivity, or gray wolves kept in zoos, have a lifespan limit that exceeds that of gray wolves in the wild.
For example, in 2024, Grandma F907, a one-eyed wolf who celebrated her 11th birthday, passed away in Yellowstone National Park. There are wolves in long-lived zoos who live over twenty years old, but they are basically less than 13 years old in the wild.
Note: This F907 old wolf died not because of old age, but because of external injuries.
Gray wolf in the zoo. Image source: Photographed by the author at Beijing Zoo
Among domesticated dogs, puppies with longer snouts such as the Shiba Inu have an average life span of more than 13 years.
Shiba Inu. Picture source: The author took it in Chaoyang District, Beijing
The European wildcat (Felis silvestris), the wild relative of the domestic cat, has a very difficult time living for fifteen years in the wild. However, domestic cats have a record of living longer than twenty years, and even up to 25 years old. What's more, Guinness World Records identified a long-lived cat named Crème Puff who died at the age of 38.
Of course, different cat breeds and dog breeds have undergone corresponding selection and breeding, and some selected breeds may encounter problems related to inbreeding and genetic defects from time to time.This often leads to short lifespans for many breeds of cats and dogs.
The smaller dogs with longer muzzles mentioned above live longer, while those with shorter muzzles are more likely to suffer from respiratory problems (such as French bulldogs).
The life expectancy of many large dogs is also relatively short, even less than ten years compared to their gray wolf relatives in the wild. Among cats, Birmans and Burmese cats have long lifespans and can exceed fourteen years, while Sphynx cats have a short lifespan, with a life expectancy of less than 7 years.
It seems that the lifespan of these creatures is really a hidden mystery. If you want to understand all this, you need to look at their genomes, physical traits, and their living conditions and living conditions.
References
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Planning and production
Produced by Popular Science China
Author丨Lv Zelong Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Producer | China Popular Science Expo
Editor丨Zhang Yinuo