Photos of the World’s Oldest Living Things
Among the organisms documented by photographer Rachel Sussman are 80,000-year-old aspen trees and 600,000-year-old bacteria
- By Joseph Stromberg
- Smithsonian magazine, January 2013
(Rachel Sussman)
Some of the oldest organisms live in the world’s most fragile ecosystems. This 2,200-year-old Antarctic moss (green, in the background) was photographed at Kanin Point, on South Georgia Island off of Antarctica. Climate change threatens local ecosystems around the globe, especially those at the poles. “The thing I am most concerned with is that even in these tucked away corners of the world, we are seeing signs of climate change,” Sussman says. “That’s the scary part.”
The oldest organism Sussman has photographed is a bacteria sample from the Siberian permafrost (not pictured) that has survived for 400,000 to 600,000 years. But the permafrost is thawing as the climate changes, so the world’s longest known survivor, she says, “may also be the most vulnerable.”
Comments (7)
How did Sussman manage to avoid the bristle cone pine of the basin ranges of western america?,or for that matter some creasote shrubs in the Mojave? or yet again the mycellium of the honey mushroom in I believe ,Washington state?
Posted by simon kelly on January 19,2013 | 11:21 AM
I would like to echo comments by Bob Blandford & Robert Hurley. How are these things dated? Just because a clone has been around a long time doesn't mean the ramets of the clone are the same age. In the case of the birch, where is the original ortet, and has it been dated by increment cores or carbon 14 or ?? I am also of the impression that the bristlecone pine in the White Mountains known as "Methusala" is the oldest living thing (it has been dated using increment cores. How about the Anartic beech (is that Nothofagus). Is the one pictured the original ortet and has it been dated by increment core?
Posted by Ron Schmidtling on January 15,2013 | 01:44 PM
Very Interesting subject to study. I can't help but think that the majority of these things are thriving in the harshest of weather conditions because we don't want to! If we had decided to live in these places they would not have had the opportunity to live this long because we would have torn them up. Beautiful & interesting. Thanks for taking the time to capture these images.
Posted by Lindsey on January 2,2013 | 02:21 AM
Some information on exactly HOW these things were dated would be nice. Otherwise she gets an "Incomplete".
Posted by Robert Hurley on December 27,2012 | 04:56 PM
What about deep sea corals?
Posted by amanda on December 27,2012 | 10:33 AM
Very profound. I suspect the keys to human immortality amount to four basic categories: [1] Age before youth, [2] Coping with athleticism, [3] Vampirism / medicine, and [4] Highly specific adaptivity to the environment. These organisms show all of those characteristics.
Posted by N. Coppedge on December 23,2012 | 01:14 AM
Amazing! I'm so out of date, I suppose. Till now I always thought the oldest living organisms were bristlecone pines out west In the US. But They are at least several thousand years old I believe, Why aren't they Among those pictured?
Posted by Bob Blandford on December 23,2012 | 09:29 PM