Ancients Among Us

Crocodiles and alligators.  Somehow these critters crawled into our dinner conversation.  We both knew they'd been around a long time, no idea how long of course.  I commented that cockroaches had been around a long time, too.  Trish isn't the least bit fond of roaches, doesn't even want to talk about 'em.  Can't say I'm a fan, either, but some folks like 'em.  Chinese folks especially; they have roach farms where they raise millions of 'em for food, cosmetics and medicines; $20 a pound.



Curiosity aroused, I googled it.  And the winner is...roaches!  Would you believe 350 million years?  Crocs and their cousins: 200 million years.  No contest.  Roaches survived while dinosaurs came and went, their window was 65-230 million years ago.

Still curious, I wondered what other ancient critters are still around.  And if roaches were the overall title holder.  Nope.  Several sea creatures are older (in millions of years): horseshoe crab 445; nautilus 500; jellyfish 550; sponge 580.  Are sponges critters?  Sure.  What the heck.

Nautilus

And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the overall winner, the longest living thing on earth.  Soup!  Well, it looks like soup.  Decidedly unappetizing soup.

Cyanobacteria, 2.8 billion years old

Although I see little resemblance to anyone in my family tree, these little fellas may be our common ancestor, the common ancestor of everything for that matter.  They were the first ever microbes to produce oxygen via photosynthesis.