A tuatara is a singularly unique animal. Don’t call it a lizard, or a dinosaur, although its reptilian relatives have been dead a long time. Found in New Zealand, the closest genetic species is an extinct group of reptiles that existed during the prehistoric days of the dinosaur. Discovering the tuatara’s lineage in 1989 was like finding a living fossil. It comes from the Sphenodontia order, which had not been known to flourish since the Jurassic Age, about 200 million years ago. The last of the Sphenodontia species was thought to have died out 60 million years ago. And then they found the tuatara hiding out in burrows on offshore New Zealand islands.
Tuatara eggs can take up to 15 months to hatch. As an evolutionary trait, it’s not the best. Rats have plenty of time to eat them to extinction. But a mature tuatara can live to be 100 and can survive near-freezing temperatures. They are also able to remain active at cool temperatures, which gives them a reptilian edge. Interestingly, the hatchlings are born with a third eye, including a lens, retina, and cornea. Scales and pigment cover it by the age of six months. Like the marsupials found down under, these critters are marvelous.
Australian Lungfis
This fish can easily outlive a human, even a centenarian. However, most Australian lungfish live for about 25 years. One lungfish, called Granddad, held in captivity at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium, lived to 80 years old. Granddad was an adult when it was collected in 1933. It died when the aquarium euthanized it in 2017.
This species has been around forever. Quite literally, fossil records date the Australian lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri) back 380 million years. This eel-like prehistoric species that swam the rivers while the dinosaurs roamed, has lived in its current form for 100 million years, making it one of the oldest living vertebrates on the planet. One unique aspect to its form is an extremely rare evolutionary trait, a single dorsal lung that allows it to breathe air, hence its name. Amazingly, the Australian lungfish can live several days out of the water. It is native to the rivers of Southeast Queensland.
Olm
This little guy is a salamander that can live more than 100 years! On average an olm (Proteus anguinus) lives 70 years. That’s one long-living amphibian! Its slithering snake-like body grows to only 12 to 16 inches in length. It lives in Central and Southeastern European underwater caves, and, like its cave-dwelling peer, it’s blind as a bat. Luckily, it’s exceedingly adapted to its dark habitat. So much so, that the olm’s other senses, especially smell and hearing, are extremely acute. Olm have lived in caves of Slovenia and Croatia for over 20 million years.
Recently, chemical pollutants have been leaching into the caves. Also damaging olm populations are black market species collectors. As a result, the olm is vulnerable to extinction. Like a frog, the olm matures from a tadpole, but like a fish, it never leaves the water. In the safety of dark underwater caves, the olm has few predators and feeds on small critters like worms, insects, larvae, and snails.
Blue Whale
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest creature to have ever graced the planet. It’s as large as an average ship and outsizes, even, the most gigantic of the extinct dinosaurs. It’s difficult to imagine how enormous these beasts of the sea are. Its massive heart, alone, can weigh as much as a small car. With a lifespan comparable to humans, the great blue will live 80 to 90 years average. The oldest blue whale lived 110 years. Scientists were able to calculate its lifespan based on ear wax buildup. It works sort of like the rings on a tree method, whereby, the layers of wax can accurately be counted to determine the whale’s age. Their diet is based on swallowing up huge schools of tiny krill. If they can find it, blue whales can devour four tons of krill a day. This is the extent of their hunting activity.
On the flip side, blue calves, even though they weigh 3 tons at birth, can fall prey to great whites and orcas. The only significant predator to the blue whale is hunting by man. Before bans on whaling were put in place, blue whales were very nearly exterminated due to 19th and, and especially, 20th century global whaling. The magnificent blues were harvested for various commercial purposes. Today they are considered endangered, although their numbers have risen to about 9,000.
Coral
Coral is an Anthozoa that live in colonies and form the vital reefs that sustain ocean ecosystems. Sometimes called the rainforests of the seas, coral reefs provide the primary habitat to more than a quarter of the ocean’s animals. Unfortunately, coral reefs are threatened. Excessive amounts of carbon dioxide, overfishing, and water pollution is causing bleaching, what happens when coral colonies die off. About 10% of the ocean’s reefs are dead, and 60% are at risk.
Coral is a prehistoric organism, and, luckily, like the sea sponge, it lives virtually forever. On average, coral reefs are 5,000 to 10,000 years old! Coral have a stomach and a mouth. The mouth is surrounded by stinging tentacles that suck in its food. They grow very slowly, about 1 to 8 inches per year. Coral reefs cover only about 1% of the ocean floor.