[Animals] What is the oldest living animal in the world?

[#Wittels-]

 

Discover the species that has survived the passage of more than 100 million years and its appearance is still intact.

A pond in James Park, London, near Buckingham Palace.
The tadpole shrimp (Triops cancriformis) is a priority species for conservation action in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan (UK BAP). The animal lives in small ponds that dry up during the summer.

The arthropod Triops cancriformis, also known as the tadpole shrimp, is a species of crustacean that crawls in freshwater ponds throughout Europe, Russia and the Middle East, says the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL). English), a database that collects information on all known species of living things on Earth.

According to EOL, Triops is a living fossil. It has lived with the first mammals of the Triassic period 220 million years ago, making it the oldest living animal species known to humans. The shrimp, despite its small size of between 6 and 11 centimeters, resembles the horseshoe crab.

What is the habitat and lifestyle of the Triops
Due to the uncertainty of the habitat where it develops its life, ponds that dry up during the summer, the animal has a rapid life cycle: it can develop from egg to adult in just two or three weeks when its habitat is still humid, he argues. EOL. While your pool is dry, Triops eggs can lie dormant for decades before hatching and even survive high temperatures before water begins to encroach on their territory.

The tadpole shrimp po[CENSORED]tion can be gonococcal (male or female), hermaphroditic (both biological sexes), or androdioic (coexistence between male and hermaphrodite). This last case, says EOL, is very strange in this species of animals, it supposes the coexistence of a po[CENSORED]tion because it is made up of hermaphroditic Triops and a small proportion of males.

Grazing tracks in shield shrimp (Triops australiensis) pond algae that have hatched after rain.

tadpole shrimp conservation status
Due to the chemicals that pollute the water from animal waste, predation by required species such as ducks, fish and even exotic plants; these animals are critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

What other long-lived animals inhabit the earth?
In the animal kingdom there are species that, unlike the tiny crustacean, have a longer life expectancy. Among them, an article published by National Geographic mentions the Greenland Shark (Somniosus microcephalus) as the longest-lived vertebrate in the world. The chondrichthyan is capable of living 400 years, twice the age of the longest-lived land animal: a giant tortoise.

 

Link: https://www.nationalgeographicla.com/animales/2023/04/cual-es-el-animal-vivo-mas-antiguo-del-mundo