Earth's Oldest Animals

It's official: The oldest living animals on Earth live in the deep sea.

In an announcement from Texas A&M University delivered at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, the title of Marine Methuselah goes to gold corals and black corals. Their age: between 2,000 and 4,000 years.

That's just a millenium or so shorter than the lifespan of the oldest living thing, the bristlecone pines found in the White Mountains of Eastern California.

Big thanks to Peter Etnoyer of Texas A&M, who posted on Deep-Sea News about the big event. I'd write about them in more detail, but he's eloquent in describing their lives, their rivals and the threats they face.

There's a Monterey Bay connection, too (of sorts). A 2002 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expedition to the Davidson Seamount off the Big Sur coast found other deep-sea corals of enormous size, also presumed to be very long-lived. Similar corals and other amazing animals were documented in a follow-up expedition in 2006.

There have been proposals to expand the boundaries of the " target="_blank">Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to include the Davidson Seamount -- affording protection against bottom-trawling or other destructive human activities that could threaten ancient living treasures like the bubblegum coral (at right).

We'll keep you posted on progress.

Comments

[2Tangs]

Interesting post about "The oldest living animals on Earth live in the deep sea."