The First Known Immortal Animal
On the face of it, immortality sounds like science fiction. The possibility to indefinitely extend ones’ life would hold a lot of appeal. Throughout history, tales have been told about those who have searched for the means to make themselves immortal. The fountain of eternal youth and the Holy Grail are often the subjects of these stories. Unfortunately for us, they have remained just that – stories.
Well, one particular animal has achieved what humans have longed for since the dawn of time.
There Is An Immortal Animal?
Scientists have recently discovered the world’s first known immortal animal. A jellyfish species named Turritopsis nutricula. This jellyfish can reenter an earlier polyp stage, restarting its lifecycle after it mates.
The jellyfish can repeat this process indefinitely, meaning that it will never die from aging, ever. This doesn’t mean the jellyfish can’t be killed however. It just means that unlike other animals, it will not die from old age. Researchers hope that studying the Turritopsis will lead to breakthroughs in reversing the human aging process.
The jellyfish are originally from the Caribbean but have since spread all over the world.
Photo is available under a Creative Commons Attribution license by Wikicommons.
Reference – Gilbert, Scott F. (2006). “Cheating Death: The Immortal Life Cycle of Turritopsis“
There can be ONLY ONE!
And i am the only one lol
Its not the only immortal organism…perhaps correct to say the first multi-cellular organism that has no “expiry date”. Unicellular organisms like amoeba also don’t die
actually that’s not grammatically correct single cell creatures such as amoeba do die, they just don’t age as we define it.
Grammar is moot, and the marvel of Turritopsis nutricula acknowledged;
But unless all offspring die, then animals that reproduce by fission are immortal. Since it seems to me that the ‘individual (sic) life’ does not attach to, or stop with, the ‘parent’ nor start with either of the offspring, the original ‘self’ continues (diluted?) with both ‘offspring’.
. Is my ‘self’ diluted as I grow bigger from an infant?
. Life is too marvelous. :)
The species name is lowercase; the genus is uppercase. It should be Turritopsis nutricula
what if i eat alot of that jelly fish or take all it cells & inject it to my body will i become immortal or atleast become a vampire ^_^
YAAAAY bloody Jellyfish they would wouldn’t they!! :3
Amazing!
Does this sea jelly spawn young, or does it swap DNA and use the regression to reboot its life with the new genetics (becoming its own child)?
Just what we need… People who live forever. There are some people who should definitely not be allowed to live forever. They do enough damage in a normal lifetime.