From the oldest human-planted tree in the world to a 25 million year old beer, join us as we take a look at the oldest things on the planet in DID YOU KNOW? #10.
20. If George H. W. Bush lives to November 24, 2017 he’ll be the longest-lived ex-president of the United States.
History19. The oldest known individual tree is a Great Basin bristlecone pine found in White Mountains, California. It’s approximately 5066 years old.
18. A clonal tree is a group of trees that all originate from a single ancestor. The oldest known clonal tree system is over 80,000 years old. It is a Quaking aspen known as Pando in Fishlake National Forest, Utah. It has an enormous root network that weighs an estimated 6,000,000 kg, making it the heaviest known organism on the planet.
17. The oldest living human-planted tree is a Sacred Fig in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. It was planted in 288 BC.
16. In 2013 researchers discovered that some endoliths, types of microorganism, have a span of 10 millennia between generations.
15. There is a tiny, flowering plant called yareta in the Puna grasslands of the Andes that may be up to 3,000 years old.
AmusingPlanet14. The oldest human to have ever lived was Jeanne Calment. She lived to the ripe age of 122 years and 164 days.
13. The oldest man ever recorded was Jiroemon Kimura from Japan. He lived to the wise old age of 116 years and 54 days
12. Some bowhead whales have lived at least 211 years, making them the oldest mammals on the planet.
11. The world’s oldest animal was Ming the clam, killed at 507 years old by scientists trying to determine its age. Whoops! 🙁
10. The oldest known koi fish was named Hanako. She died in Japan in 1977 at the golden age of 226.
9. Creme Puff was the oldest living cat ever recorded. She died at the age of 38 years and 3 days. She had a reported diet of bacon and eggs, asparagus, broccoli, and coffee with heavy cream.
Wikipedia8. An Australian Cattle Dog named Bluey was the oldest dog ever recorded. He lived 29 years, 6 months and 12 days.
7. The oldest person to graduate from high school was 111 year old Lela Burden from Norfolk, Virginia. She dropped out in 1918 when a flu pandemic closed local schools. By then she was already working two jobs to support her family and never returned to high school.
6. The oldest person to graduate from university was 97 year old Allan Stewart from New South Wales, Australia. He earned a Masters in Clinical Science.
5. The oldest dinosaur fossils ever studied date back some 240 million years!
4. China, Japan and San Marino are considered the oldest countries in the world.
3. Argos, Greece is considered the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Settled between 6th–5th millennium BC.
2. A flowering plant called silene stenophylla was grown from a 31,800 year old piece of fruit found in an ancient squirrel cache.
1. Microbiologist Raul Cano revived a 25 million year old piece of yeast trapped in amber. He made a beer out of it!
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So there’s our list of 20 random facts about the oldest things on the planet. Did this listicle of old things make you feel tiny and insignificant? If so, let us know on Twitter and Facebook.
