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Week 9 [20-26.05.2019] The world's oldest living things

I found this topic very interesting, did you imagine that there are that old, natural, amazing things among us ? Rachel Sussman shows photographs of the world's oldest continuously living organisms from 2000 year old coral to an over half milion year old bacteria found on Siberia. Please watch this short movie and answer couple of questions below:


Did you know about any of those species ?
Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?

Comments

Nataliya Tkach said…
1.Did you know about any of those species ?
I used to see an article about baobab and ginkgo.

2.Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
The tallest plant is the General Sherman tree, 85 meters high, living in California National Park. Its age is more than 2500 years old, and its mass is about 2,000 thousand tons.

Selaginella whose history is about hundreds of millions of years.

3.Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
I am on Facebook subscribed to various interesting facts and discoveries, so I often read open species of sea creatures who were previously considered extinct, new cosmic discoveries.
Yes I once heard about reading a baobab while I was still in elementary school. The novel had the title "W pustyni I w puszczy". The baobab thread described two children protecting themselves in a gigantic tree trunk.

I heard about the two longest living animals on earth. The first of them was a unique species of turtle in Central America. When he was found, he had a piece of Indian tomahawk in his shell. The second of them was an Arctic shark. Little is known about it, only that it is very old and practically doesn't move in the water, saving energy.

It's interesting knowledge, but it doesn't really bring anything to my life. Of course, for the fact that I can boast of this type of knowledge in this course. This is commonly spoken of useless knowledge.
There are actually many things that have been around since, well, the creation of the planet. I believe, many sand grains or molten lava layers deep into the planet were formed long ago. It is just simply extremely difficult to clarify and find out the age of a sand grain. As for the animals, the oldest species are jellyfish, fly and mosquito. They seemed not to be affected by evolution or any kind of mutation. My guess is that they already have perfect living condition and have no need to adapt to anything.
Yeah, I've heard and seen baobab images some time ago in elementary school.
Nice, that is a verry tall tree :D Good to know , who knows maybe someday they will ask us about it in "Milionairs" show.
Wow, that is impressing. I've found video about this shark for anyone who're interested : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz2HBk5sKlc. They oldest one is 512 years old !
s18716 said…
Did you know about any of those species ?
Yeah cool. I heard about some of them. But I learned a lot of new things. Speaker is very lucky with the scope of activities. Combining science and art is great.

Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
Yes, I know some such species. For example, I know for sure about jellyfish. Perhaps the oldest animals on the planet, but I could be wrong. But if the sight of about 600 million years is impressive. Well, or for example crocodiles and cockroaches. Everyone is already so accustomed to them, but many of them appeared long before the dinosaurs, and even as we understand, we have already experienced them.

Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
Yes, definitely. Since childhood, showed interest in such things. even then he was very fond of encyclopedic books, probably also this interest remained from them.
1.Did you know about any of those species ?
No, but god, this is so mindblowing! I have never imagined that a single organism could live for so long!

2.Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
I have heard about a turtle that has more than 150 years. But come on, it seems to be quite young compared to the beings shown in the ted talk.

3.Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
Kind of? I ususally look for interesting facts connected to my hobbies, like technology or IT. However I found this video really interesting, to be honest.
Maciej Sadoś said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maciej Sadoś said…
1. Did you know about any of those species ?
I heard about the baobab tree in an elementary school. I’m still surprised about it’s size.

2. Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
A couple of days ago I was in an oceanarium and I read about a big polar shark that is about 500 years old and it’s still living in an Atlantic Ocean. Unbelivable!

3. Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
I’m really interested in various facts like that, like the facts about space, new technologies and things connected with our lives.
I din't know about these creatures, they are weird and interesting in undescribable way. I know about some turtles who anre hundreds years old, and a few hundred year old oaks, back home, i love this things and i think that they are one of the natures part that needs protecting. I love random facts, but nowadays i rarely have a lot of time to delve into them.
I am as enthusiastic as you are ! This is trully mindblowing that those organisms can live that long. I like interesting "not that important" facts to extend my overall knowledge.
Yes i agree, as a whole species probably like you said those insects might be one of the oldest. Have you heard about plan to globally get rid of all mosquitos ? Not only because they are annoying but they carry lethal diseases.
Anna Koca said…
Did you know about any of those species ?
I think I heard about the Fulufjallet tree in Sweden, but I remembered it somehow growing in Siberia.

Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
Not really, I've never been much into the subject. I know that Japanese people do live until their very old, though, however, it does not quite count as a plant (or does it)

Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
Like I said, I like to hear these kinds on interesting facts, but there are so many of them now on YouTube that they just kind of slip through my head and I can't get my head around them for longer.
Very interesting. I am very glad that old organisms are left on earth. I believe that they need to be protected by law so that our children can see it. I did not know that there are very old organisms that have thousands of years. I will write even, I really like the articles in this course. I learned a lot of new and interesting. And this article is no exception.
Unfortunately, I have never heard about any of this species. I think that it’s really cool job to find and see actually one of the oldest living things on Earth.
The only thing I heard about that is this ancient and supposedly still alive is the great shark named Megalodon. I have no idea if it is still alive or if it is only a legend, but this is the only that old animal that I heard about.
I don’t read about such things too often but from a time to time it is quite pleasant and interesting steppingstone from our everyday reality.
1. Yes, I’ve seen a few thou I have to say those are some usual picks.
2. I could swear that there was a massive sea sponge, a few thousand years old. Cannot remember it’s name but that would make it the only actual animal on the list. Other then that The Greenland sharks reach maturity around 150 and no one knows just how long they live. It’s estimated that the largest spotted specimens could be over 400 years old.
3. Am I interested in interesting facts? Interesting you ask, I believe I wouldn’t be interested if they weren’t interesting. The answer you are looking for is yes. I spend more time researching those then I should.
Actually I do not consider myself a biologist, nor I am interested in the old species. But it was quite and interesting information, because I have never read anything like this before. It made me think about the whole life development on our planet.
Yes, baobabs are pretty common knowledge I remember that everytime when teacher mention about tall and old trees that must be a baobab :D
Yeah I've heard about that shark too, couple comments above I posted a link from youtube about this shark :)
Woah, I've never thought that could be job, thats right ! Very interesting position for someone who love to travel and biology. I think that Megalodon died milion years ago as it was name for a big predators shark look like they were living in a same age as dinosaurs.
Nature is amazing with the mix of different species and how they can vary. It's also incredible how old these things can get. Can you imagine living half a million years? I hope all the living things mentioned can live through climate changes and global warming. It will be sad to see them passing. I wonder what else can old things tell us about Earth.
Did you know about any of those species ?
Yes , many times at school or internet . Very good example is baobab tree, this is very big and old tree.
Do you know about any other old plant/animal still living on earth ?
I know that turtles living very very long but I don't remember how much exactly.
Are you even interested in this kind of interesting facts ?
Yes, but I was very long time ago. When I was in primary school, every day I spend on watching Animal Planed, after that in Biology lessons I was a leader with knowing plans and animals and still this is interesting for me but I don;t have that much time to watch it and Animal Planet changed programms in TV, now they showing things like "Funny animals" or "Police for animals from (...)"

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