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TOOL 10

Lifespan Lookup

An adult mayfly gets a day. An ocean quahog clam has been dated at 507 years. Set your age and see where it falls: how far you are through a dog's life, how many mouse lifetimes you've already lived, and how young you are next to a Greenland shark.

YOUR AGE30 years
Mayfly (adult)
Hours to a dayYou: 10,950 lifetimes
Worker honeybee
About 6 weeksYou: 260 lifetimes
House mouse
About 2 yearsYou: 15 lifetimes
Domestic dog
10 to 13 yearsYou: 2.5 lifetimes
Domestic cat
12 to 18 yearsYou: 2.0 lifetimes
Chimpanzee
About 40 yearsYou: 75% through
African elephant
60 to 70 yearsYou: 46% through
Human
About 73 yearsYou: 41% through
Giant tortoise (Jonathan)
About 194 yearsYou: 15% through
Bowhead whale
Up to ~211 yearsYou: 14% through
Greenland shark
~392 (±120) yearsYou: 8% through
Ocean quahog (Ming)
507 yearsYou: 6% through
Glass sponge
~11,000 years (disputed)You: 1% through
1 day1 mo1 yr101001,00010,000
Log scale: each step to the right is ten times longer. The black line is you.
DOG YEARS, CORRECTED

Seven to one is wrong

A 2020 study compared DNA methylation, a chemical ageing clock, in Labradors and people. Dogs race through early life, then slow down: a one-year-old dog matches a human of about 31. The fitted formula is human age = 16 × ln(dog age) + 31, valid from age one.

Dog age: 3years
49human years (×7 says 21)
OFF THE CHART

The jellyfish with no fixed lifespan

Turritopsis dohrnii can turn an adult medusa back into a juvenile polyp when stressed or injured, then grow up again. In principle that loop can repeat indefinitely, so it has no lifespan to plot. In the wild most are still eaten or killed by disease long before ageing matters.

How these ages were measured

Most wild animals are never followed from birth to death, so long lifespans are dated from body chemistry or growth layers. Figures are typical lifespans for short-lived species and the oldest reliably dated individual for long-lived ones.

ANIMALLIFESPANHOW WE KNOW
Mayfly (adult)Hours to a dayAdults have no working mouthparts; they live only to mate and lay eggs
Worker honeybeeAbout 6 weeksSummer workers; winter bees born in autumn can live 4 to 6 months
House mouseAbout 2 yearsTypical in captivity; most wild mice die within their first year
Domestic dog10 to 13 yearsVaries by size: giant breeds average under 10, small breeds often reach 14+
Domestic cat12 to 18 yearsIndoor cats live markedly longer than outdoor cats
ChimpanzeeAbout 40 yearsWild maximum around 50; captive individuals have passed 60
African elephant60 to 70 yearsAge read from molar wear: elephants get six sets of molars
HumanAbout 73 yearsGlobal average life expectancy at birth (WHO)
Giant tortoise (Jonathan)About 194 yearsSeychelles giant tortoise on St Helena, estimated to have hatched around 1832 and photographed fully grown in 1882
Bowhead whaleUp to ~211 yearsDated from chemical changes in eye-lens proteins; old harpoon tips found in living whales
Greenland shark~392 (±120) yearsRadiocarbon dating of eye-lens nuclei laid down before birth
Ocean quahog (Ming)507 yearsCounted from annual growth bands in the shell, like tree rings
Glass sponge~11,000 years (disputed)Estimated from growth layers in a deep-sea Monorhaphis spicule; the method is debated
  1. Butler, P. G., et al. (2013). Variability of marine climate on the North Icelandic Shelf in a 1357-year proxy archive based on growth increments in the bivalve Arctica islandica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 373, 141-151.
  2. Nielsen, J., et al. (2016). Eye lens radiocarbon reveals centuries of longevity in the Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus). Science, 353(6300), 702-704.
  3. George, J. C., et al. (1999). Age and growth estimates of bowhead whales (Balaena mysticetus) via aspartic acid racemization. Canadian Journal of Zoology, 77(4), 571-580.
  4. Jochum, K. P., et al. (2012). Siliceous deep-sea sponge Monorhaphis chuni: a potential paleoclimate archive in ancient animals. Chemical Geology, 300-301, 143-151.
  5. Wang, T., et al. (2020). Quantitative translation of dog-to-human aging by conserved remodeling of the DNA methylome. Cell Systems, 11(2), 176-185.
  6. Piraino, S., et al. (1996). Reversing the life cycle: medusae transforming into polyps and cell transdifferentiation in Turritopsis nutricula. Biological Bulletin, 190(3), 302-312.

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