Longest-Living Animals: Species That Live for Centuries

How long can animals live?

Most animals live short lives: many insects survive only weeks, and most small mammals only a few years. Yet a few species, mostly cold-water creatures with slow metabolisms, live for centuries. Long life tends to go with slow growth, late breeding, a stable environment and few predators.

Ages can be counted precisely for some animals and only estimated for others, so the list below says which figures are measured and which are scientific estimates.

1. Glass sponges and black corals: thousands of years

The oldest animals known are simple, slow-growing creatures of the deep sea. A glass sponge from the western Pacific, Monorhaphis chuni, grows a single giant glassy spike up to about 3 m (10 ft) long; growth layers in one spike suggested an age of about 11,000 years. Black corals of the genus Leiopathes, which grow on deep reefs, have been radiocarbon-dated to about 4,265 years.

These ages are estimates based on growth rates and are debated. Sponges and corals are also colonial or very simple animals, so many lists rank them separately from animals with organs and a single body.

2. Ocean quahog: Ming, 507 years

The ocean quahog (Arctica islandica) is a clam of the North Atlantic, from the coasts of New England and Canada to Iceland, Britain and Norway. Its shell adds a growth line every year, like the rings of a tree, so its age can be counted exactly. In 2006, scientists dredged up a quahog off northern Iceland and later counted 507 annual lines, meaning it hatched around 1499. Nicknamed Ming after the Chinese dynasty ruling at the time, it is the oldest individual animal whose age has been precisely determined. Sadly, the clam died when it was collected, before anyone knew its age.

3. Greenland shark: the longest-lived vertebrate

The Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) lives in the cold, deep waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Sharks have no hard bones that lay down yearly rings, so in 2016 scientists dated the oldest part of the eye lens, which forms before birth and never changes. The largest shark in the study, a female about 5 m (16.5 ft) long, was estimated at 392 years, with a likely range of 272–512 years.

Greenland sharks grow only about 1 cm (0.4 in) a year or less and probably do not breed until they are about 150 years old. That makes them very vulnerable to being caught as bycatch, and the IUCN lists the species as Vulnerable. Learn more in how long do Greenland sharks live?

4. Bowhead whale: the longest-lived mammal

The bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) of the Arctic is thought to be the longest-lived mammal. In the 1990s, scientists measured slow chemical changes in the eye lenses of bowheads landed in Alaska, a method called aspartic acid racemization. Several whales appeared to be well over 100 years old, and one male was estimated at 211 years.

Older evidence supports these ages. Old stone and ivory harpoon tips, of types not used since the 19th century, have been found in bowheads landed in recent decades, and in 2007 a fragment of an exploding harpoon made around the 1880s was found in a whale caught off Alaska. Compare other species in how long do whales live?

5. Rougheye rockfish and other long-lived fish

Many fish live far longer than people expect. Scientists age fish by counting the yearly rings in their otoliths, small ear stones that grow throughout life.

• Rougheye rockfish (Sebastes aleutianus) of the North Pacific, from Japan to Alaska and California, can live about 205 years.
• Orange roughy, a deep-sea fish fished commercially off New Zealand and Australia, can live well over 100 years and does not breed until it is 20–40 years old.
• Bigmouth buffalo, a freshwater fish of the American Midwest, has been aged at more than 120 years in Minnesota lakes.
• Lake sturgeon of the Great Lakes region can live for over a century; one caught in Wisconsin in 2012 was estimated at 125 years.

6. Giant tortoises: the oldest land animals

Giant tortoises are the longest-lived land animals. Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, a subspecies of the Aldabra giant tortoise, was brought to the South Atlantic island of St Helena in 1882 as a fully grown adult, at least 50 years old. He is thought to have hatched around 1832, which makes him roughly 190 years old or more, and he is recognized as the oldest known living land animal. His exact age, like that of most old tortoises, is an estimate.

Other famous tortoises include Tu’i Malila, a radiated tortoise said to have been given to Tonga’s royal family by Captain James Cook in 1777, which died in the 1960s at about 188 years, and Harriet, a Galápagos tortoise that died in Australia in 2006 at an estimated 175. Claims of tortoises older than 250 years have never been confirmed.

7. Tuatara: a reptile that can pass 100

The tuatara of New Zealand looks like a lizard but is the last survivor of an ancient group of reptiles. Tuatara grow very slowly, continuing to grow for about 35 years, and commonly live 60 years or more, with some passing 100. Henry, a tuatara long kept at the Southland Museum in Invercargill, became a father for the first time in 2009 at an estimated age of about 111. See how long do tuataras live?

8. Other centuries-old invertebrates

• Freshwater pearl mussel of Europe’s clean rivers can live well over 100 years, with maximum estimates of about 210–250 years in northern populations.
• Red sea urchin of the Pacific coast of North America has been estimated to live more than 200 years.
• Deep-sea tubeworms that grow around cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico often live 100–200 years, and some are estimated at over 300.

9. Birds and mammals that live for decades

Warm-blooded animals rarely reach a century, but some come close. Wisdom, a wild Laysan albatross on Midway Atoll, was first banded in 1956 when she was already at least five years old. She laid an egg as recently as late 2024, making her the oldest known wild bird, at about 74 or more. Large parrots can also live 60–80 years in captivity.

Among land mammals, humans are unusually long-lived; the oldest fully documented person, Jeanne Calment of France, reached 122 years and 164 days. Elephants can live 60–70 years. For their size, bats are remarkable: a Brandt’s bat weighing only about 7 g (0.25 oz) was recorded at 41 years in the wild in Siberia.

The “immortal” jellyfish and other myths

The tiny jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii is often called immortal. When injured, starving or stressed, an adult can turn back into a young polyp attached to the seabed and later produce new adults, in effect starting its life over. No natural age limit is known, but in the wild these jellyfish are still eaten or die of disease, and nobody can measure the age of one individual. Read more in how long do jellyfish live?

Lobsters are another popular example. They keep growing and do not show obvious signs of aging, but molting their shell becomes harder and riskier as they get bigger, and they do die. The oldest American lobsters are thought to live several decades, perhaps up to about 100 years, though this is hard to confirm.

How scientists measure the age of old animals

• Growth rings: clam shells, fish ear stones and coral skeletons add a layer every year that can be counted under a microscope.
• Bomb radiocarbon: nuclear weapons tests in the 1950s and 1960s added a pulse of radioactive carbon to the oceans, a time marker used to check ages in sharks, fish and corals.
• Eye chemistry: proteins in the eye lens change slowly over time, which was used to age bowhead whales and Greenland sharks.
• Records of known individuals: banding birds, as with Wisdom, or written histories, as with Jonathan, give ages for single animals.
• Genetic estimates: patterns in DNA can be used to predict a species’ maximum lifespan; one 2019 study estimated the bowhead’s at about 268 years.

Longest-living animals compared