The world’s oldest known land creature is a giant tortoise named Jonathan. Although some cold-blooded creatures are known to live long, there was a lack of large-scale research on the subject. While making up for this shortcoming, scientists also made some interesting discoveries.
In the international study carried out by 114 scientists, 107 animal communities from 77 different species were examined. These examined creatures were selected among reptiles and amphibians. The research was led by Penn State and Northeastern Illinois Universities.
Not only do they live long, they also stay young
One of the first findings scientists obtained in this study was that lizards, crocodiles and turtles age incredibly slowly and have long lives for creatures their size. In addition, it was stated that creatures with shells or protective armor age more slowly, and that the aging of some even becomes insignificant.
David Miller, professor of wildlife population ecology, who led the research, says that revealing what slows down the aging of these creatures will also play an important role in understanding aging in humans. In the next stage, the difference between warm-blooded and cold-blooded creatures will be examined.
On the other hand, it has been discovered that some cold-blooded creatures age rapidly according to their size. Scientists stated that it is generally thought that living things with a fast metabolism age quickly, but this does not necessarily have to be this way.
If we had armor, would we live long too? It doesn’t make much sense to claim that humans would live fast if they had natural armor. First of all, we probably wouldn’t have been able to hunt in the early years of humanity, as we are a drag-hunting species.
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