which is the oldest living thing in the world?

Question

its a tree

Answer 1

Yes, it is a tree, a bristlecone pine. Wikipedia says :-

Currently, the oldest living organism known is an individual of Pinus longaeva nicknamed "Methuselah" (after Methuselah, the longest-lived person in the Bible), located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of eastern California, and measured by core samples to be about 4,700 years old.

Answer 2

This question depends on what you mean by 'living' and what you mean by 'thing' !!!

OK, bristlecone pines are pretty old, but they are not nearly as old as creosote bushes. So wikipedia is probably wrong on this one.

Creosote bushes are a very common plant in the southwest USA. They grow in extremely dry desert areas. In order to defeat competitor plants they secret a poison into the ground that prevents other plants from growing. The creosote starts with a small bush and grows very, very slowly, but after a long time, it sends out some runners that start new branches in a circle around the orginial branches. After a really long time the center branches die and there is a circle of branches around the place where the original branches were. These circles gradually expand outward... the same plant continously very, very slowly growing outward and dying in the center.

So, after centuries you get a circle of branches maybe 20 feet (six meters) in diameter. That takes over 10,000 years. So many of the circling creosote bushes that are commonly seen in the California or Arizona deserts are twice as old, or even maybe three times as old as the famous bristlecone.

There is another organism that some scientists think is even much older, but it is very controversial.... that is a kind of worm that lives on the bottom of the deep ocean... some calculations suggest that individuals can live 200,000 years.... but other people strongly disagree, so I dont think you can count that one.

Answer 3

October, 1999; 250-million-year-old bacteria were found in ancient sea salt beneath Carlsbad, New Mexico. The microscopic organisms were revived in a laboratory after being in 'suspended animation', encased in a hard-shelled spore, for an estimated 250 million years. The species has not been identified, but is referred to as strain 2-9-3, or B. permians. OR 1997; King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica) - found in the rainforests of Tasmania. Scientists estimated the age of the plant using a nearby fossil of an identical plant. It was found to be over 43,000 years old! The plants appear to be sterile - incapable of producing flowers and viable seeds. Lomatia is triploid, that is, it has three sets of chromosomes instead of two. Because of this it is unable to sexually reproduce. The clonal thickets reproduce vegetatively by root suckering. Fossil leaves found in a late Pleistocene deposit may be genetically identical to present-day plants. The plant is a rare freak of nature whose origins and age are as yet unknown.

Answer 4

I guess it is the sacred Bo tree! Draco is the oldest living thing as well

Answer 5

The most beautiful also...the California Redwood

Answer 6

Rosie O' Donnell's sarcasm

Answer 7

The giant Tortoise..

Answer 8

Ummm... Is it a tree?

Answer 9

its grandpa le cookaracha

Answer 10

bacteria