Longest-lived sponge species

- Who
- Scolymastra joubini
- What
- 15,000 year(s)
- Where
- Not Applicable
- When
- 1500 BC
The longest-lived species of sponge is Scolymastra joubini, an Antarctic hexactinellid or glass sponge. It grows extremely slowly in this region's exceedingly cold waters, and an estimate of age for one 2-m-tall specimen in the Ross Sea gave a result of 23,000 years. However, this sea's fluctuating levels suggests that it could not survive here for more than around 15,000 years. Yet even if that latter, lower age estimate is itself an overestimate, this sponge is still one of the oldest – if not the oldest – animal specimens on the planet.