Member-only story
The longest living animals
Sep 11, 2023
Probably, the longest living animals are siliceous sponges, i.e. with a skeleton of silica-based spicules.
The spicule is the rod-like structure that anchors the animal to the seabed, and that gets longer over time.
An interesting fact is that we have deduced from the length of the spicules that they can live as long as 11,000 years. Some specimens are even thought to be as old as 18,000 years.
