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| Jelly Fish |
Immortality
is an age-old concept I thought only existed in the movies. Mythology
as old as human history refers to people and animals who never die. From
the legendary Vampire Count. Dracula to the original hybrid, Klaus
Michaelson. But, for the most part, immortality is a fantasy-- right?
Well, surprisingly there are some animal species that, for whatever
reason, don't like the idea of death and have decided that they will
have no part in it. These animals are functionally immortal.
They
never age, and unless something or someone, somewhere decides to kill
them, they could theoretically live forever. Let's have a look at the 6
Animals that never die.
1. The Sea Anemone
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| Sea Anemone |
The
lowly sea anemone may not look like an immortal animal. In fact, it
doesn't even look like an animal. In between swaying to the left,
swaying to the right, and occasionally swallowing a bit of debris, this
brainless polyp is busy defying everything we know about mortality. A
sea anemone doesn't age as it gets older; it simply grows bigger.
Fortunately
for those who find this a little creepy, none of them has lived long
enough to develop sentience yet-- they get wiped out at around age 80 by
heat, water pollution, infections and greedy collectors.
2. The Lobster
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| SpongeBob: Larry The Lobster |
Like
the sea anemone, the lobster is Immortal. It has no brain, and its
central nervous system is about as simple as a common household insect.
But lobsters have somehow figured out a way to defy ageing as we know
it. Unlike people, lobsters don't experience any change in metabolism or
body function as they get older. A hundred years old lobster will even
continue eating, moving and making baby-lobsters without any sense of
shame.
They
also keep getting bigger-- meaning that, after couple-hundred years,
they can be the size of a wolf, and capable of scaring the living
daylights out of anyone who's read the Dark Tower series.
3. The Giant Aldabra Tortoise
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| Giant Aldabra Tortoise |
Aldabra
giant tortoises are exactly what they sound like-- freaking Giants. The
males can weigh nearly 800 pounds, which would make them the most
terrifying animals in the world if they ate meat and moved a little
quicker. Fortunately, Aldabra tortoises barely seem to notice humans
like us-- they aren't tame; they simply don't care. Because, inside
their little reptilian brains, they are laughing at the fact that we get
old and die.
We
aren't sure just how long Aldabra tortoises live because they have a
pesky tendency to live longer than the people watching them. The oldest
confirmed age of an Aldabra tortoise was 255 years, but some may have
lived to be twice that age.
4. The Rougheye Rockfish
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| Rougheye Rockfish |
The
rougheye rockfish just sounds defiant. In fact, I'd include a few more
descriptions-- like riptide, rugged, 'rumblin', 'radical and ravin'-- in
its name because the rockfish is incredibly ugly but makes up for it by
being defiant of everything.
Everything
Including mortality. A rougheye rockfish, which is a functionally
immortal animal, can live to be 200 years old or more unless some guy
with a fishing pole manages to break it of its persistent addiction to
life.
5. The Immortal Jellyfish
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| Immortal Jellyfish |
The
name says all. When the immortal jellyfish gets tired of being a
sexually mature adult, it can decide to be a polyp-- that is, a baby--
again. To do this, the jellyfish (technically a medusa) turns itself
inside-out, then re-absorbs its tentacles and other dangly bits.
It
then lands in its grave (or birth site) somewhere in the sand and
becomes a colony of tiny little polyps. It's like your grandpa deciding
that he's going to go to bed and turn into a few dozen fetuses-- only
the immortal jellyfish doesn't have dementia and actually will follow
through on its threat.
6. The Hydra
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| The Hydra |
This is neither the Evil organisation we've all come to hate in the Captain America movie franchise nor the legendary 3-headed beast slain by Hercules.
The hydra is a nearly microscopic immortal animal, but what it lacks in
size it makes up for in stamina. (You probably know at least a handful
of men who use the same excuse with their girlfriends.) Hydras are
actually remarkably efficient predators; they release an explosion of
neurotoxins into their prey, paralyse it, and then consume the animal
whole. Every single cell in the hydra's tiny body is constantly dividing
and rejuvenating, so any injured, polluted or defective cells are
diluted by the thousands of others. Because they are constantly
replenishing their living cells, hydras do not age at all-- ever.
Immortality
doesn't truly exist in practice, but, in theory, any of these immortal
animals really could manage to live forever. Unfortunately for them (and
fortunately for us) environmental conditions do eventually destroy
every living "immortal" animal.
There
you have it, 6 animals that actually never die or are almost Immortal. I
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