These animals outlive humans: Top 10 longest living critters

BySeth Borenstein AP logo
Thursday, August 11, 2016
A Greenland swims slowly away from a boat, returning to the deep and cold waters of the Uummannaq Fjord in northwestern Greenland during tag -and- release research.
AP-AP

WASHINGTON -- More than a dozen animals live longer than we do. A new study estimates that at least one Greenland shark lived about 392 years, making it the longest-living animal with a backbone.

Here are the animals that the scientific longevity database AnAge says have lived the longest. Many of these live in the cold and in water.

The longest-living human reached 122.5 years.

1. Hexactinellid sponge: One of these Antarctic sponges lived for an estimated 15,000 years.

2. Epibenthic sponge: Another Antarctic sponge that is generally estimated to live 1,550 years.

3. Ocean quahog: This clam, nicknamed "Ming," had its rings measured and it lived 507 years.

4. Greenland shark: A new study estimates the age of one of these sharks at 392, but it could have been somewhere between 512 and 272 years old when it died.

5. Bowhead whale: One male bowhead living in the Arctic waters was estimated to be 211 years old when it died.

6. Rougheye rockfish: These red fish of the North Pacific have lived to be 205 years old and show little effects of aging in life.

7. Red sea urchin: The spiny critters also don't seem to age much and are estimated to live about 200 years.

This Wednesday, July 19, 2000 file photo shows a 40-year-old Galapagos tortoise named Jumbo with Dolores, the smallest and youngest one at the Zurich Zoo.
AP Photo/Walter Bieri

8. Galapagos tortoise: These slow moving creatures seen by Charles Darwin have lived as long as 177 years old.

9. Shortraker rockfish: These orange-pink fish have lived up to 157 years.

10. Aldabra tortoise and Lake sturgeon: A tortoise that died at a zoo was 152 years old; unconfirmed reports put some of these tortoises living up to 180 years. One lake sturgeon, a bottom-feeder fish, is reported to have lived to be 152.

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