Answer 1:
Wikipedia has a list of the longest-living
animals here:
long liveing
organisms
in its article, "List of long-living
organisms"
Jellyfish, sponge, and shark are the top 3 on
this list.
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Answer 2:
That´s a great question. Many animals are
much longer-lived than ourselves, including:
black coral (over 4000 years), several species
of marine sponges (over 1000 years), some Koi
fish (over 200 years), and certain tortoise
species (over 200 years), among others. The
longest (potentially) living animal I know of is
the Turritopsis nutricula, a biologically-
immortal jellyfish. Turritopsis nutricula is a
jellyfish who can revert to the polyp (immature)
stage after becoming sexually mature through a
process called cell transdifferentiation, which
allows it to live indefinitely. This is the only
known case of an animal capable of doing this.
However, these jellyfish are still affected by
predators, especially in their immature
planktonic form, so most likely, the majority of
individuals die, even if not due to biological
aging.
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