More Long-Lived Animals

Fight Aging!

Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

EurekAlert reminds us that many animals have very long life spans - 250 years in the case of a particular breed of tubeworm. Whales are also surprisingly long-lived and you'll find a great deal more interesting information of this sort at the Ageless Animals website. That so many different species of animal live so long is a clear rebuttal to many of the arguments against healthy life extension. The basis of the complex machinery making up our bodies is clearly capable of extreme longevity in other configurations - many of these very long-lived animals are not so different, biochemically speaking, from us humans.

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/plos-tst021605.php