The oldest single animals ever documented, from a 507-year-old clam to a century-plus tuatara, ranked by the maximum age reached by one individual.
Quick answer: 1. Ocean quahog clam ("Ming"), 2. Greenland shark, 3. Cold-seep tubeworm, 4. Aldabra/Seychelles giant tortoise ("Adwaita"), 5. Koi ("Hanako"), 6. Bowhead whale, 7. Rougheye rockfish, 8. Red sea urchin, 9. Galapagos giant tortoise ("Harriet"), 10. Tuatara.
Some animals don't just outlive us — they outlive the empires we were born into. The record-holder on this list was already alive when Columbus sailed, and the runner-up predates the founding of the United States by centuries. These are the longevity champions of the animal kingdom, ranked by the single oldest individual ever documented for each type of animal. Ages this extreme can't be taken on faith, so each entry names how the age was determined — counting annual growth bands in a clam's shell, radiocarbon-dating the lens of a shark's eye, or racemization chemistry in whale tissue. A few famous claims (a 255-year tortoise, a 226-year koi) never met that bar, and we flag them as disputed rather than dropping or endorsing them.
The longest-lived non-colonial animal ever documented. A single clam dredged off Iceland in 2006 was aged at 507 years — born around 1499 — by counting the annual growth bands in its shell and cross-checking with radiocarbon dating.
The longest-lived vertebrate on record. A landmark 2016 Science study dated the eye lenses of these Arctic sharks and estimated the largest specimen at roughly 392 years, with the full range across individuals spanning 272 to 512 years.
These deep-sea tubeworms clustered around cold seeps routinely live one to two centuries, and growth-rate modeling has aged some individuals at more than 300 years — extreme longevity paired with extraordinarily slow growth.
Disputed. Adwaita, who died at Kolkata Zoo in 2006, was reputed to be about 255 years old, but only roughly 150 years is conservatively backed by records — the higher figure is unverified. For a verified comparison, Jonathan the tortoise (hatched c. 1832) is about 194 and the oldest known living land animal.
Disputed. A Japanese koi named Hanako was reported to have died in 1977 at 226 years old, her age read from growth rings on a scale. The claim is widely questioned and has never been independently verified, so the figure is shown with that caveat.
The longest-lived mammal known. Chemical dating of eye-lens tissue estimated one male at about 211 years, and antique stone and ivory harpoon fragments recovered from hunted whales independently corroborate ages well beyond a century.
One of the longest-lived fish, with a maximum recorded age of at least 205 years. Ages are read from the annual growth zones laid down in the otoliths, the fish's ear bones — the same principle as counting tree rings.
Specimens of this Pacific urchin have been aged at over 200 years and show remarkably little sign of aging, with ages estimated from body size calibrated against radiocarbon and tetracycline growth markers.
Harriet, a Galapagos giant tortoise at Australia Zoo, was reported to have reached about 175 years when she died in 2006 — one of the best-documented reptile ages on this list.
This slow-aging New Zealand reptile — the last survivor of an ancient order — can exceed 100 years. A captive male named Henry famously bred at age 111, evidence that lifespans stretch well past a century.
| # | Name | scientificName | group | agingMethod |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ocean quahog clam ("Ming") | Arctica islandica | Mollusk (bivalve) | Shell growth-band counting + radiocarbon cross-dating |
| 2 | Greenland shark | Somniosus microcephalus | Fish (shark) | Eye-lens radiocarbon (bomb-pulse) dating |
| 3 | Cold-seep tubeworm | Escarpia laminata | Marine invertebrate (annelid) | Growth-rate modeling of tube length |
| 4 | Aldabra/Seychelles giant tortoise ("Adwaita") | Aldabrachelys gigantea | Reptile (tortoise) | Historical records (age disputed) |
| 5 | Koi ("Hanako") | Cyprinus rubrofuscus | Fish (carp) | Scale growth-ring count (veracity disputed) |
| 6 | Bowhead whale | Balaena mysticetus | Mammal (cetacean) | Aspartic-acid racemization of eye lens |
| 7 | Rougheye rockfish | Sebastes aleutianus | Fish (rockfish) | Otolith growth-zone counting |
| 8 | Red sea urchin | Mesocentrotus franciscanus | Marine invertebrate (echinoderm) | Growth-model + radiocarbon calibration |
| 9 | Galapagos giant tortoise ("Harriet") | Chelonoidis niger | Reptile (tortoise) | Historical records |
| 10 | Tuatara | Sphenodon punctatus | Reptile (rhynchocephalian) | Captive records |
Items are ranked by the maximum recorded lifespan, in years, of a single non-colonial animal — the oldest individual of that type ever documented, not the species' typical or average lifespan. Figures are drawn from peer-reviewed studies as aggregated by the AnAge Database of Animal Ageing and Longevity and Wikipedia's List of Longest-Living Organisms, with primary studies cited where available. Inclusion criteria: (1) the organism must be a single, discrete individual — colonial or modular organisms such as corals and sponges are excluded because they are not one individual; (2) the figure must be the maximum age reported in the literature for a specific individual. Where a headline age is disputed or unverified (e.g., Adwaita the tortoise, Hanako the koi), the reported maximum is used for ranking but the dispute is stated plainly in that item's note. Rank 1 is the highest maximum recorded lifespan.
The longest-lived non-colonial animal ever documented is an ocean quahog clam nicknamed "Ming," dredged off Iceland in 2006 and aged at 507 years by counting the annual growth bands in its shell and confirming the count with radiocarbon dating. That means it was born around the year 1499.
The Greenland shark holds that record. A 2016 study in the journal Science dated the eye lenses of these Arctic sharks and estimated the largest specimen at roughly 392 years old, with individuals in the study ranging from 272 to 512 years.
The bowhead whale, an Arctic species, is the longest-lived mammal known. Chemical dating of eye-lens tissue put one male at about 211 years old, and old harpoon fragments recovered from hunted whales independently confirm that some live well over a century.
This ranking counts only single, discrete individuals. Corals and sponges are colonial or modular organisms — a colony is made of many genetically identical units rather than one individual — so although a colony can persist for thousands of years, it isn't a single animal in the sense this list measures.