Red Sea Urchins Nearly Immortal

varjag writes "A study by scientists from Oregon State University and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have revealed that Red Sea urchins are practically immortal. While they can die from diseases or predator attacks, it seems that their life span has no biological limit. Specimen as old as 100 and 200 years have been discovered, while previously they were expected to last no longer than 7-15 years."

Comments

Nearly immortal?

[wizarddc]

Because 200 years is like FOREVER! When I heard nearly immortal, I thought theyw ould say soemthing like 500, 1000, even 5000 years old. Not 200. Don't some sea turtles live that long? Do we call them "nearly" immortal?

Re:Nearly immortal?

[fuzzybunny]

On the scale of a sea urchin, that's pretty damn close. Think Lobsters--the things could essentially keep growing to massive sizes, but they get eaten, stepped on, poisoned, diseased, shoved into massively deep ocean trenches and crushed into little tiny balls of lobster meat, whatnot.

Rather, take the number with a grain of salt, and re-read the article while assuming laboratory conditions. There's a pretty big gray area between pure environmental factors which cause death (falling victim to the food chain, for example) and an organism's own slow decline because stuff just stops working after a while.

I don't remember who said it, but the gist was that animals are supremely inefficient beings, because if they'd been designed properly, they'd just live forever through cell regeneration.

Re:Nearly immortal?

[fredrikj]

I don't remember who said it, but the gist was that animals are supremely inefficient beings, because if they'd been designed properly, they'd just live forever through cell regeneration.

No. Cell degeneration is part of the design; it results in old generations vanishing and getting replaced by new ones, ensuring that evolution makes progress. This even helps human society evolve :)

Re:What

[buttahead]

The key to their longevity appears to be always growing, but ever so slowly.

acutally, consistant isn't indicated as the reason for long life... evolution can explain the age of these guys.

Anything that happens after a creature stops reproducing does not contribute to evolution. So, typicaly you see creatures die soon after they stop reproducing, as there is no more need for them to exist. This has been indicated in women recently in small studies, but also makes some sence if you think about it.

The fact that the urchins just keep on putting out sperm and eggs means that longevity can help them spread their genes more than any short lived urchin. and viola... if there is any age after which the urchins do go through a menopause... death for them will probably be within a few years after.

This is weak evidence

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think we can be sure that 19 centimeter sea urchins are two hundred years old.

They say that they grow at a slow rate and they think that bigger equals older with the urchins. Maybe the big sea urchins are just big for some other reason. Genetics or a good food supply or something. There is no real evidence that they live for a hundred years.

Hazy logic?

[brianjcain]

This just in -- housefly researchers determine that human beings are near immortal, with natural lifespans in excess of two months.

Re:Immortal? No, just like human lifespan

[Haeleth]

The oldest documented human lifespan is slightly over 120 years.

I take it you mean the largest figure for a human lifespan accepted by modern medical science, right? I can think of some pretty old documents about human lifespans that beat 120 years hands down... most of the book of Genesis, for example. ;)

Re:100 ~ infinity?

[ChickenAintDone]

Yes, but parrots and sea turtles show signs that they are wearing out, and will soon die. The urchins are living to the age of 120 and showing no signs of being less able to going on living for a long amount of time than very young urchins, which is why they're being labeled "immortal."