For everyone and about everything. Ancient organisms

Centenary animals and thousand-year-old trees attract both tourists and scientists who want to unravel the secret of such a long life.

We have collected examples of such “patriarchs” - from a 184-year-old turtle from the Seychelles to algae off the coast of Spain that are more than 100 thousand years old.

Algae on the Balearic Islands (Spain), 100 thousand years old

Algae off the coast of the Balearic Islands in Spain are believed to be the oldest organism on Earth. Their age is about 100 thousand years. The colony of ancient algae extends almost 16 kilometers in width.

The plant belongs to a type of sea grass - flowering grasses that have adapted to life under water, but otherwise resemble meadows on the surface of the earth. To protect the underwater meadows, the Spanish government required them to be specifically marked on navigational charts.

Brooklyn artist Rachel Sussman included a painting of Balearic seagrasses in her book The Oldest Life on Earth, calling their story "an epic journey through space and time."

Pando aspen forest (Utah, USA), 80 thousand years old

The root system of Pando's aspen forest national reserve Fishlake, Utah, USA, more than 80 thousand years old.

This forest is believed to be the heaviest organism in the world. Its trunks and roots weigh more than five thousand tons. Pando, which is also called the “trembling giant”, occupies 43 hectares.

Unfortunately, the forest is currently dying due to disease, insect infestation and drought.

Old Vine (Maribor, Slovenia), 400 years old

In the city of Maribor (Slovenia) you can find a vine that was planted at the end of the Middle Ages. It is known that the plant is more than 400 years old. It is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest fruit-bearing vine in the world.

Every year the old vine produces 35 to 55 kilograms of grapes, which yield about 100 bottles of wine - the drink is sent to the highest religious officials, including the Pope.

Alligator Muja (Belgrade Zoo), about 80 years old

The American alligator Mooya, who lives at the Belgrade Zoo, is believed to be the oldest crocodiles in captivity: he is about 80 years old.

In 1937, when he was brought to the zoo, the alligator was already an adult. Since then Muya has survived world war, three bombings that nearly destroyed the zoo, and the Balkan crisis in the 1990s.

Hatteria Henry (New Zealand Southland Museum), 120 years old

Hatterias are rare reptiles that live only in New Zealand. Despite their external resemblance to other reptiles, they belong to the beaked species, a species that lived on the planet before the dinosaurs and survived their extinction.

120-year-old Henry is the oldest known to man tuatteria. He became a father at the age of 111, and this attracted so much media attention that even England's Prince Harry came to look at the unique reptile.

Jonathan Turtle ( Seychelles), 184 years

Jonathan was about 50 years old when he arrived from the Seychelles to St. Helena in the 19th century as a gift to the local governor.

In 2005, the turtle was recognized as the oldest land animal on earth. Jonathan survived 28 British governors. He now shares territory with four others giant turtles: David, Emma, ​​Frederica and Myrtle.

In 2016, Jonathan was diagnosed with problems with vision and smell. Despite this, scientists believe that he can live to be 200 years or more.

Fortingall yew (Scotland), up to 5000 years old

It is difficult to calculate the age of yew trees because their growth rings are dying. However, judging by the girth of the trunk, the tree in the Scottish village of Fortingal is at least two thousand years old. Moreover, measurements made in 1769 show five thousand years.

Hildesheim Rose (Germany), 1000 years old

On the wall of the Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany grows a thousand-year-old rose, which was listed in 1985 World Heritage UNESCO. The dog rose bush, or Rosa canina, is considered the oldest living rose in the world.

Records indicate the plant is approximately 700 years old, but many believe it is much older. During World War II, the cathedral was bombed, but the roots of the rose survived, and the plant again entwined the restored wall.

Olive tree in the village of Vouves (Crete), about 4000 years old

The village of Vouves in Crete is home to probably one of the oldest olive trees in the world. Scientists from the University of Crete estimate its age at 4,000 years, and yet it produces an olive harvest every year!

In 1997, the tree was declared a natural monument, and in 2009, a museum dedicated to it was opened nearby. About 20 thousand people come there every year.

Sunland Baobab (Limpopo, South Africa), 6000 years old

The huge tree at Sunland Farm in South Africa is the oldest baobab tree in the country. Radiocarbon dating shows it to be about 6,000 years old.

According to farm owner Heather van Heerden, this baobab tree is older than the pyramids of Giza. The tree trunk is so large that only 40 adults can grasp it.

With age, cavities form in the trunks of baobabs; the cavity in this tree was so large that a bar was built there. It can accommodate up to 15 people, and the ceiling height reaches four meters.

Every year, more than seven thousand people come to the Sunland farm who want to see the legendary tree and at the same time sit in a bar inside it.

The oldest fossil organisms

Since we are interested in the ancient history of the biosphere, it seems most reasonable to begin with a review of the data on life before the beginning of the Phanerozoic, which were obtained from the study of the oldest fossils.

Although these fossils are few in number and date back to periods far removed from one another, they nevertheless provide reliable information. They are all dated, at least approximately, by the potassium-argon method and can be used as the basis for the chronicle ancient history living organisms.

The most ancient fossils found in rocks (Table 2) are marine organisms: protozoa (bacteria) (photo 8) and plants, represented by single-celled blue-green algae. The remains were found in South Africa in rocks dating back at least 3.2 million years. This date means that at a time when the age of the Earth was only one-third of today, the sea was already inhabited by living organisms, albeit the simplest ones. This was a significant step forward.

Table 2. Main events in the history of living matter and the development of the atmosphere and hydrosphere. The shaded area represents the relative abundance of organism species. Asterisks indicate fossils whose age was determined by the potassium-argon method. (Compiled from various sources.)

The next oldest fossils were found in Ontario, in rocks dating back two billion years. They were also bacteria and blue-green algae, as shown in Table 2. But in the rocks of central Australia, which are believed to be about one billion years old, several types of fossil plants have been found. Among them, in addition to simple unicellular organisms, there are also the oldest known multicellular organisms. Green algae were also found there - a type of plant that has complex cells and allows sexual reproduction, as opposed to simple reproduction. These properties allow for genetic diversity and thus open the way for the development of infinite differentiation of organisms. This phenomenon apparently arose no more than a billion years ago. But by Cambrian time, at the beginning of the Phanerozoic, about 400 million years later, a sharp increase in the number and diversity of animal organisms had already begun, a process that led the organic world of the Earth to its modern state. This "explosive" increase could be the result of the emergence of sexual reproduction.

Photo 8. The oldest known fossil organism, whose age is determined to be 3.2 billion years. A bacterium (called Eobacterium isolation) from eastern South Africa less than 1/1000 mm long. Photo taken using an electron microscope

So far we have only mentioned protozoa and plants. What do we know about the appearance of animals? The remains of hundreds of primitive marine animals have been found in South Australia's Precambrian strata, likely dating back more than 800 million years. All of them represent impressions on the soft sediments of an ancient muddy coastal plain and beach of animals washed ashore at low tide (Photo 9, Fig. 28). The animals had soft bodies without shells or any hard parts. The prints preserved in the sandstones belong to animals such as jellyfish, some branching forms resembling polyps, and some other forms that are not similar to any living animal. Finally, prints of worms and traces of their movement in shallow water were also found. In this diverse community, the most important element are worms, since they are a type of highly developed annelids. Their presence suggests that simpler animals existed in the sea much earlier - so much earlier that they managed to develop from the simplest forms to more complex ones, represented by annelids.

Photo 9. The oldest fossil animal found in South Australia is the Bellworm, Spriggina Floundersi, about 5 cm in diameter.

Photo 9. The oldest fossil animal found in South Australia is a jellyfish, Cyclomedusa davidi, about 2.5 cm long

It is hardly surprising that we do not find the simplest animals, the existence of which is indicated by complex forms, in the more ancient breeds. The small, soft-bodied animals could have survived only under a combination of conditions that are extremely rare: very fine-grained sediments, a calm, well-protected body of water, later filled with sediments without erosion, and, finally, much later, erosional processes that brought these sediments to the surface, but not destroyed them. It is likely that most of Even more ancient fossils were destroyed and the survivors become known to us only thanks to a happy accident.

The existence of several species of animals found in Australia shows that at this time the respiration of organisms had already become a common process in the biosphere. In turn, the presence of respiration suggests that the hydrosphere, and therefore the atmosphere, already contained free oxygen, an element whose absence was so characteristic in the first stages of the Earth’s existence. As we will see, the source of oxygen could be the photosynthesis of plants, which, according to paleontology, had existed by this time for two billion years or more.

An international team of scientists has discovered the oldest fossils of multicellular organisms to date.

The age of the remains belonging to mushrooms is 2.4 billion years, reports with reference to Fraza.

According to Phys.org, the fossils were found 800 meters underground in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Scientists studied traces of hot gas bubbles in volcanic rocks and found threads of mycelium in them - the vegetative body of the fungus. These organisms existed around the same time when the oxygen catastrophe occurred - a global change in the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, as a result of which free oxygen appeared.

Fungi lived under the seabed in cracks in volcanic rocks. Such ecosystems are classified as the deep biosphere, which has not yet been sufficiently studied. Previously, such bubble formations were found to be only 50 million years old, but the results of a new study showed that such habitats existed at a time when fungi were not thought to exist.

According to scientists, fungi coexisted with bacteria, using the latter's chemically stored energy for their metabolism. Under these conditions, they did not need oxygen, which was in short supply at that time.

The discovery "challenges current ideas about when and where eukaryotes evolved," explained Professor Nicola McLaughlin at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

As Fraza reported, in October 2010, in a brown coal mine in tropical forest In the Indian state of Gujarat, a placer of amber weighing a total of 150 kilograms was found, in which over 700 species of insects previously unknown to science were discovered.

In September 2015, in 20-million-year-old amber, scientists discovered a likely ancestor of the microorganisms to which humanity owes one of the deadliest epidemics in history, the Black Death of the 14th century.

In July 2016 on the coast Baltic Sea was found a piece of amber with a walled-up insect. The estimated age of the insect is about 50 million years.

On September 1, 2016, a team of scientists led by Allen Nutman from the University of Wollongong in Australia found the oldest fossils known to date. They turned out to be the remains of microbes from the Isua formation - the oldest rocks located in Greenland.

In October of the same year, Russian scientists reported the discovery of an unknown unique bacterium in the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica.

On March 1, 2017, an international team of paleobiologists discovered the oldest fossilized fragments of life on Earth. Traces of bacteria that lived on the planet about 3770-4280 million years ago near underwater hydrothermal vents were found in the rocks of Nuvvuagittuka - ancient rocks planets.

On March 2, 2017, information appeared that scientists had discovered traces of ancient microbes whose age is about 4.28 billion years, which gives grounds to conclude that the age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years.

According to the latest research by scientists from the University of California, life began on Earth 4.1 million years ago, 300 million years after the planet formed. By space standards, this is almost immediately. And immediately after its appearance, life slowly but surely began to take over every piece of space. After trillions of generations and mutations, the life forms that we can observe in our time appeared. Of course, evolution continues and will not end until the globe is destroyed by the overgrown Sun.
Over millions and millions of years, life has taken many forms, sizes and species, many of which look so alien that they seem foreign to us. And the deeper you dig into history, the stranger these species may seem. Despite constant changes, many species of living organisms have not undergone changes after hundreds of centuries, outliving the dinosaurs. We've collected 10 of the most famous "living fossils" from around the planet.

Cyanobacteria - 3.5 billion years

If you want to express gratitude for your existence, feel free to contact cyanobacteria. They are sometimes called blue-green algae. These tiny creatures were able to do the almost impossible: they changed the chain of chemical reactions on the surface of planet Earth, making it possible for more complex organisms to populate it. Cyanobacteria were the first to use photosynthesis, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere as waste products. This event was called the "Great Oxygenation". Although it is worth thanking cyanobacteria for our existence, the active growth of the population of these organisms led to the fact that they replaced all other types of anaerobic organisms, which simply became extinct.

Having become the dominant species on the planet, cyanobacteria released enormous amounts of oxygen, which, when combined with methane, created carbon dioxide. This led to a change in the temperature environment, which, in turn, became a threat to the life of the bacterium itself. Help unexpectedly came from living organisms, for which the oxygen atmosphere became comfortable. In fact, the chloroplast in modern plants is a symbiotic organism from colonies of cyanobacteria, united into a single system back in the Precambrian era. And by the way: since that time, only one species of living beings has been able to influence the environment so radically. And you relate to him exactly.

Sponges - 760 million years

Let's rewind a significant period of time: before us is an ordinary sea sponge. It took bacteria eons to evolve into something more complex. At this time
There are currently about 5,000 species of sponges. And although they look like plants, sponges are animals. The oldest species is considered to be Otavia Antiqua, discovered in the rocks of the Namibian desert. This species was widespread in this area (then still under water) approximately 760 million years ago. The fossils are no larger than the diameter of a grain of sand. However, these sponges were the first multicellular living organisms and the ancestors of all living organisms that can be classified as “animals.”
The discovery of the Otavia Antiqua fossils proved that complex organisms appeared on the planet earlier than expected (before this discovery, multicellular creatures were thought to have appeared 600 million years ago). These data correlate with the “molecular clock” theory: all DNA sequence variants, regardless of their complexity, develop and evolve at a relatively permanent and steady rate. And according to this theory, the first complex living organism should have appeared 750 million years ago.

Jellyfish - 505 million years old

550 million years ago, life on the planet was sparse: the land was deserted, and the ocean was dominated by microbes and sponges. However, then an event called the Cambrian Explosion occurred, which lasted several million years and completely changed the appearance of the Earth. In this short, from a geological point of view, period, there appeared great amount various species of living organisms, some of which became the first predators. There were two reasons, according to modern scientists: evolution and oxygen saturation. Species began to fight for survival. We can say that it was then that the “arms race” began, which has not stopped to this day.
As is known, soft tissues of living organisms are rarely petrified, but in 2007 scientists managed to find a print of the most ancient jellyfish. On the plains of Utah, 4 species of jellyfish were found that lived in this area more than 500 million years ago (when there was still an ocean here, of course). During this time, jellyfish have not changed much: the same bell-shaped body, cords and tentacles. At the same time, jellyfish inhabited the earth 200 million years before we imagined.

Horseshoe crabs - 455 million years old

Horseshoe crabs fit the title of “living fossil” like no other. They resemble crabs, but are actually arachnids, which means spiders and scorpions are closest to them. Thanks to minor changes in habitat, these ancient creatures have changed little over the past 455 million years.
Horseshoe crabs have existed in the ocean ecosystem for so long that the survival of dozens of species of living creatures directly depends on them: the female lays about 90,000 eggs, but only 10 of them produce new life, all the rest become food for other organisms.
The blood of horseshoe crabs is blue because it contains a lot of copper, which oxidizes when it interacts with salt water. They lack white blood cells, which are designed to fight infection. However, their body has learned to localize the disease, preventing it from spreading throughout the body - again, due to the specific composition of the blood. It is not surprising that on the black market for medicines, swordtail blood can cost up to $15,000 per liter!

Frilled sharks - 450 million years old

These creatures are equal parts elusive and terrifying. Real monsters from the depths of the ocean. This species of shark lives in deep layers of water along the coast in many climate zones of the planet. The first two specimens caught were described in 1881. They were discovered in Tokyo Bay. There is a version that it was the frilled shark that became mythical sea ​​serpent, which has frightened sailors for centuries. Be that as it may, this species is one of the oldest. These relatively small fish (can reach one and a half meters in length) are extremely rarely shown to people. It was possible to observe them in their natural habitat only in 2004.
Although the frilled shark resembles a mummified snake, its mouth is truly terrible: it contains 300 sharp, serrated teeth. Although scientists have yet to see a frilled shark hunting, there is a theory that the predator is attracted to sea ​​creatures with white fangs, and then attacks with lightning speed, like a land snake. Another great fact about this creature: the frilled shark's gestation period is twice that of African elephant- 42 months. Ichthyologists believe this is due to deep sea pressure.

Neolectomycetes - 400 million years

Until 1969, mushrooms belonged to the plant kingdom. This is not surprising: they have a stem, a root system, static properties, and ways to obtain nutrients. However, it later turned out that they had much more in common with animals, so mushrooms were assigned to a separate biological kingdom. It just so happens that mushrooms are the first complex organisms to reach land. This happened approximately 450 million years ago. Tortotubus is the oldest species found among fossils.
How did mushrooms help other species adapt to terrestrial life? They created all the nutrients that make upper layer rocks became soil saturated with oxygen and nitrogen.
Neolectomycetes, complex fungi, appeared on the planet 400 million years ago. The closest relatives of this species are yeasts. However, the very fact that this species has lived on Earth for so long and is widespread throughout the planet speaks of its incredible vitality (it even survived the divergence of continents and all global extinctions).

Coelacanths - 360 million years

Not so long ago, coelacanths were considered an extinct species of lobe-finned fish, the ancestors of amphibians. The oldest fossil discovered is 360 million years old, the youngest is 80 million years old. In connection with the findings, scientists concluded that this species died during the time of dinosaurs (about 65 million years ago). Imagine the surprise of the scientific community when a living specimen was caught off the coast of South Africa in 1938! The species was named Latimeria Chalumnae. Then, another species was found near Indonesia. On this moment Only two species of coelacanths were discovered, but during their heyday there were more than 90 of them.
Coelacanths differ from other species of living fish: they have a special organ with which they sense the electromagnetic field of other living beings. This is an ideal weapon for hunting in pitch darkness. In addition, the jaws are attached to the skull in such a way that the coelacanth can open its mouth much wider than other fish (the design is somewhat reminiscent of a swing). The fins of coelacanths are also noteworthy - they have bony support, so fish can even lean on them. In further evolutionary development, it was this design that turned into paws and legs.

Ginkgo tree - 270 million years old

Gingko biloba is the oldest plant species still living on the planet. Like the Neolects, ginkgo has no close relatives among the representatives of the fauna. Gingkos are closest to the cycad family, which appeared 360 million years ago.
Most of the fossilized remains of Gingko biloba have been discovered in Uzbekistan. Excavations have revealed that the species flourished during the Jurassic period (206–144 million years ago). Climate changes that occurred 65 million years ago killed not only the giant lizards: of several species, only Gingko biloba remained alive, now growing only in a few local areas in China. This species is characterized by extreme vitality and longevity: the oldest tree, the Maidenheir Tree, is three and a half thousand years old.

Platypuses - 120 million years old

Without a doubt, the platypus is the strangest living creature on the planet. We can say that platypuses are something between animals, birds and reptiles. A hybrid worthy of a separate book in a medieval bestiary. It is a mammal because it has mammary glands for feeding its young. But the babies hatch from the eggs. This method of birth is found only in platypuses and echidnas found in Australia and New Guinea. Beak and fur are a wonderful combination. Add to this the way reptiles move and poisonous spines on their elbows. In addition, this species does not have two pairs of chromosomes (XX and XY), but five! If there are alien creatures on Earth, then they include platypuses (and octopuses).
Scientists believe that monotremes became a distinct species about 120 million years ago and have slowly evolved since then due to their slow metabolism and respiration rate. In addition, the habitats were little susceptible to division of the ecosystem according to the predator/herbivore system - in the natural environment, platypuses simply have no enemies.

Martian Ants (Martialis Heureka) – 120 million years old

Named for their cosmic appearance, Martialis Heureka became a separate species 120 million years ago. This is the oldest species of ant, discovered only in 2003 in virgin forests Amazons.

This species is close to wasps like no other, and its appearance is very far from the appearance of other ants (which is why scientists gave it such a “telling” name).
The absence of eyes and pale color give a hint - this is an underground creature that comes to the surface only at night. Its diet is based on soft-bodied larvae of other insects, such as termites.
The earth still has many unexplored corners in the depths of the waters, polar ice, wild jungles and hot deserts. And it is possible that soon many species of living beings that were considered extinct will again declare their existence. For example, a plesiosaur named Nessie

We present to you the oldest living organisms that exist on our planet to this day. These ancient organisms originated millions of years ago and continue to exist with us.

Cyanobacteria
Fossils of cynobacteria dating back 3.5 billion have been discovered in Western Australia. Cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, is a type of bacteria capable of photosynthesis. It is believed that this played a role in the formation of the Earth's atmosphere and made it suitable for life.

Sponges
Sponges appeared 580 million years ago. Such ancient representatives were found in Australia, China and Mongolia.

Jellyfish
Jellyfish appeared 505 million years ago and belong to the group of coelenterates. This group also includes corals, sea anemones and other sea inhabitants.

Horseshoe crabs
Appeared 450 million years ago. Horseshoe crabs are considered living fossils. These arthropods live in shallow ocean waters with soft sandy or muddy bottoms.

Coelacanth
This rare fish appeared 400 million years ago. The last specimen was caught in 1998.

Ginkgo
Originating 270 million years ago, Ginkgo is the only living member of the ginkgo plant. Geological disasters almost completely wiped out this species from the face of the Earth.

Nautilus
Another living fossil, born 235 million years ago. Nautilus appeared at the end of the Triassic period. Nautiluses are found in the western Pacific Ocean.

Sturgeons
Sturgeons appeared 200 million years ago and are also among the living fossils, although they have changed during the process of evolution.

Martialis Heureka
This most primitive species of ants arose 100 million years ago and has remained virtually unchanged during all this time. The species was discovered in the Amazon in 2000. Ants live underground.