What is the oldest thing to live on Earth?
SINGLE TREE: Approximately 5,000 years
Great Basin Bristlecone pine tree is 4,853 years old and has been credited as the oldest known living non-clonal organism on Earth. The Great Basin bristlecone pine is found in the western United States. Getty Images.
Oldest living creature on Earth identified, emerging 700 million years ago. Scientists have announced that the oldest living creature on our planet is a jellyfish-like organism called a ctenophore. It evolved from the same primordial animals that humans did.
The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) is a species of pine tree. It is found in the American West, mostly in Utah, Nevada, and California. One of these trees has been measured to be over 4,850 years old!
The earliest life forms we know of were microscopic organisms (microbes) that left signals of their presence in rocks about 3.7 billion years old. The signals consisted of a type of carbon molecule that is produced by living things.
Scientists estimate that there are water molecules on our planet that date back up to 4.6 billion years, predating the formation of the Milky Way.
In eastern California, a Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) known as Methuselah has long been considered Earth's oldest living thing. According to tree-ring data, Methuselah is 4,853 years old — meaning it was well established by the time ancient Egyptians built the pyramids at Giza.
The dainty mayfly, an insect found worldwide in clean freshwater habitats, lives for just one or two days, the shortest lifespan of any known animal.
The oldest man-made object still in continuous use is believed to be the Ishango bone, which is a tool dating back to the Upper Paleolithic era. It was discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo and is thought to have been used for counting or recording information.
Historians and linguists generally agree that Sumerian, Akkadian and Egyptian are the oldest languages with a clear written record.
How old is Earth?
Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years. Scientists have scoured the Earth searching for the oldest rocks to radiometrically date.
According to one tradition, Epimenides of Crete (7th, 6th centuries BC) lived nearly 300 years.
Jeanne Calment
Jeanne Louise Calment, the world's longest living person (who died at the age of 122) was born in Arles, France on February 21, 1875 and died on August 4, 1997 in a nursing home in Arles. “I've waited 110 years to be famous, I count on taking advantage of it,” she quipped at her 120th birthday party.
The longest lifespan for a man is that of Jiroemon Kimura of Japan (1897–2013), who lived to age 116 years and 54 days.
With that comes the formation of H2O in its current state. From this, the researchers posit that water is roughly 4.5 billion years old. You might wonder how much of this original water can now be found on Earth. The study estimates that anywhere between 1% and 50% of our natural source came from 4.5 billion years ago.
About 7000 years ago, Jericho (Israël, figure 1) stored water in wells that were used as sources. People also started to develop drinking water transport systems. The transport took place through simple channels, dug in the sand or in rocks. Later on one also started using hollow tubes.
The sun, at 4.6 billion years old, predates all the other bodies in our solar system.
The largest tree known to have ever lived on Earth was a giant sequoia named General Sherman, located in California's Sequoia National Park. General Sherman stands at a height of 83.8 meters (274.9 feet) and is estimated to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old.
Pando, the 47,000-tree clonal colony of male* quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Utah is thought to be one of the world's oldest living organisms—the root system of Pando is an estimated 80,000 years old.
The coast redwood (sequoia sempervirens) tree is 115.92 meters (380 feet) tall and its name is derived from Greek mythology – Hyperion was one of the Titans and the father of sun god Helios and moon goddess Selene.
What animal has a lifespan of 1 day?
#1: Mayfly — The Shortest Lifespan of Any Known Animal
These insects are the shortest living animals on the planet, as the adult lifespan of a fly from this species is only 24 hours.
Lithobates catesbeianus is an animal that cannot sleep. Lithobates catesbeianus, commonly known as the American bullfrog. Like most amphibians, bullfrogs do exhibit periods of rest and inactivity, which are essential for their physiological and behavioral well-being.
Although there are several species among many groups of insects that exist for only a few days as adults, the shortest adult reproductive life belongs to the female of the mayfly Dolania americana (Ephemeroptera) which lives for less than five minutes after its final molt.
The oldest artifacts ever found are the stone tools found at the Lomekwi archaeological site in Kenya in 2015. The tools were located near fossils of Kenyanthropus platyops , which is a hominin species that genetically links together chimpanzees and modern humans.
The hand axe
Perhaps the oldest ever human invention is the hand axe, the oldest examples of which date back 2.6 million years, found in Ethiopia.
