1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:10,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from how Stuff works. Hey, brain stuff, 2 00:00:10,680 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: Christian Sager here. So as far as aging goes, humans 3 00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,919 Speaker 1: have it pretty good. I mean, we're no giant tortoises, 4 00:00:17,960 --> 00:00:20,880 Speaker 1: but we're generally capable of living for decades, some of 5 00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: us for more than a century. Here at brain Stuff, 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,639 Speaker 1: it got us thinking, what is the world's oldest living thing? Well, 7 00:00:28,680 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: that's a tricky question, and the answer depends on how 8 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: we define living and thing. First, let's tackle what we 9 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:37,840 Speaker 1: mean by thing. If we say a thing could also 10 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,120 Speaker 1: be a clonal colony, then the competition heats up quickly. 11 00:00:41,440 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: There are numerous plant and fungal clone colonies that have 12 00:00:44,760 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: been around for tens of thousands of years, and they're 13 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:51,519 Speaker 1: still barreling along. There's King Clone, the creosote bush in 14 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:55,040 Speaker 1: the Mojave, almost twelve thousand years old. And we can't 15 00:00:55,080 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: forget Pando, the gigantic male quaking aspen clonal colony in Utah. 16 00:01:00,120 --> 00:01:03,920 Speaker 1: He is about eighty thousand years old. Incidentally, he's also 17 00:01:03,960 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: the heaviest living thing, weighing in around six million kilograms. 18 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:11,639 Speaker 1: But what if we stick to single organisms. If so, 19 00:01:11,760 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: then the tiny end a liths are strong contenders. These 20 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,920 Speaker 1: extreme aphile methuselahs like to kick back and take it easy. 21 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:21,200 Speaker 1: For millions of years, they've lived a mile and a 22 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,680 Speaker 1: half below the ocean floor, with metabolism slower, the molasses 23 00:01:25,880 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: only reproducing once every few centuries or millennia. I mean 24 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:34,400 Speaker 1: that makes pandas look like rabbits. There's a big, let's 25 00:01:34,440 --> 00:01:39,160 Speaker 1: call it loophole in the definition of living dormancy. What 26 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: if something was frozen in time, trapped in stasis, and 27 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:45,200 Speaker 1: then revived like Captain America or the Alien and the Thing. 28 00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:48,880 Speaker 1: In two thousand and eleven, professor Brian Schubert published a 29 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: paper on just that he discovered bacteria in what he 30 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:56,600 Speaker 1: called a kind of hibernation state inside tiny bubbles of 31 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,920 Speaker 1: thirty four thousand year old salt crystals. Their scientists have 32 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:03,960 Speaker 1: claimed to find older organisms, such as the two hundred 33 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: and fifty million year old bacteria in southeast New Mexico, 34 00:02:08,440 --> 00:02:12,200 Speaker 1: but Schubert's work was independently reproduced. So if we allow 35 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:15,560 Speaker 1: an organism to take a time out and spend thousands 36 00:02:15,600 --> 00:02:18,640 Speaker 1: of years in stasis, there are loads of competitors for 37 00:02:18,639 --> 00:02:21,600 Speaker 1: the title of oldest living thing, many of which may 38 00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,400 Speaker 1: still lurk undiscovered in the isolated hinter lands of Earth. 39 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:30,000 Speaker 1: You know, deep oceans, remote mountains, endless Arctic wastes. Now 40 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,720 Speaker 1: I'm thinking of HP Lovecraft. Well, moving on, there's one 41 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:38,240 Speaker 1: other important thing. Some organisms might be immortal. Now, don't 42 00:02:38,240 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: get jealous. We're not talking about some super sexy vampire 43 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:47,560 Speaker 1: type immortality. No, we're talking about jellyfish, specifically hydra and 44 00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:51,160 Speaker 1: the tour autopsis story. The tour autopsis is only four 45 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:54,480 Speaker 1: point five millimeters large, but capable of something that may 46 00:02:54,520 --> 00:02:57,760 Speaker 1: be unique in the animal world. After reaching sexual maturity, 47 00:02:57,960 --> 00:03:01,160 Speaker 1: it can revert to its polyp stage, it can reverse 48 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 1: and reset its aging cycle, rendering it biologically immortal, and 49 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,320 Speaker 1: the hydra doesn't seem to age at all. That means 50 00:03:10,360 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: that potentially the oldest living organism could one day be 51 00:03:14,320 --> 00:03:18,160 Speaker 1: a jellyfish. But for now, even counting states of dormancy, 52 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:22,200 Speaker 1: the oldest living, continually active things on Earth appear to 53 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: be the extreme file organisms collectively called endoliths. But of 54 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:31,239 Speaker 1: course there may be something older, buried in time, dormant, 55 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:35,280 Speaker 1: waiting for intrepid humans to wake it from its deathless slumber. 56 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:42,839 Speaker 1: Check out the Brainstuff channel on YouTube and for more 57 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,400 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Visit how stuff 58 00:03:45,400 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: works dot com.