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Diving Between Immortals

December 22, 2019

By Scuba Legends

PADI 5 STAR IDC CENTRE IN LANZAROTE

The search for the secret of endless youth has been one of the biggest crusades amongst history. For centuries it tortured the souls of emperors, dictators, great thinkers and scientists. Nowadays, the question “Is there a source of eternal youth? ” seems close to be answered. Once more, the oceans bring us the solution for another big question of humanity. Without knowing it, probably you have been diving various times inbetween immortals.

There are some species in the ocean that own biological immortality. This is the lack of ageing. They can die due to a disease or by being haunted by a predator, but if that wouldn’t happen, these underwater creatures would live forever. Not only this, but their biological functions would remain perfect forever, showing absolute no signs of ageing. Which are this lucky species?

1 – Jellyfish

Jellyfish discovered the youth source. The only way a jellyfish dies is when a predator eats or totally destroys it. Some Jellyfish can reverse back any damage to its cells to a previous in time state of a maximum of 3 days before. It is like making a security backup of its cells, so if they are affected by stress or injured they restore the backup.

2 – Lobsters

Lobsters show no sign of ageing. The oldest individual known reached around 140 years old. Nobody can say how much they live, because they precede the biologists records. They die because of diseases or predator activity. Lobsters are so fit, the reproduce until the very last moment of their life. The age of a lobster is simply calculated by its weight. They never stop growing. The more it weights, the older must be.

3 – Ocean Quahog

They show exceptional longevity with a high reported age. Scientists calculate that the Ocean Quahogs can easily live more than 400 years. The oldest individual known from this species reached 507 years old, called ‘Ming the Clam’ because it was already alive during the Ming Chinese Dynasty.

4 -Turtles

Researchers found out that turtles don’t show any signal of ageing. One of the oldest turtle known reached an estimated age of 225 years. It died because a disease. From the other side, turtles are very delicate when it is about wounds and diseases. While they can live for centuries when everything is good, they can die within a few days if they have an infected wound.

5 – Flatworms

They have an ideal capacity to aid their cell division and awesome regenerative capability. When something goes wrong Flatworms can simply regenerate the injury or simply split into two completely separate individuals. This means they are almost impossible to kill and very rarely die due to a disease. Ageing doesn’t affect them, because they can regenerate the old cells.

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