the youngest known species

September 29, 2005 at 10:55 am #2015

Participant

What do you think? which is the youngest species of animals in the world?
I think it could be some domesticated animals like Cats (felix domestica) which was created some 5000 years ago in Egypt. Or dogs? or cows? The same question which is the oldest living animal?. Latimeria? Or some species of crocodiles? hmmmm?

September 29, 2005 at 12:53 pm #30119

Winter

Participant

by oldest living animal do you mean by age? That would be some species of tortoise, I guess. Or do you mean what is the oldest specie?
Here is something I found:

quote :

The very oldest species on Earth are the cyanobacteria, which seem to have
been around virtually unchanged for nearly 4 billion years. This is based
on fossils of that age that have been compared under high-powered
microscopes to existing species of these bacteria. Other bacteria that
are about as old are the archaea, which thrive in acidic, high-
temperature, or high-radiation environments.

Another ancient organisms are the stromatolites, mounds of algae and
bacteria that today grow in the Bahamas, Shark’s Bay Australia, and a few
other limited environments. They have been around, also largely
unchanged, for over 3 billion years and at one time were the Earth’s
dominant form of life.

On the animal side of things, the brachiopod Lingula is probably the
oldest, having existed nearly unchanged for over 500 million years, and
the horseshoe crab (limulus) has been on the planet for several hundred
million years, too. Since the average “lifespan” of a species is only a
few million years, having such ancient species around is very impressive.

A good book about the earliest life is “Cradle of Life” by J. William
Schopf. He is one of the premier scientists doing this sort of research.
At a more advanced level, he has edited two scientific books, “Earth’s
Earliest Biosphere” and “The Proterozoic Biosphere”, which should be in
your university’s geology or science library.
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/oc … .Ev.r.html

As for youngest specie:

quote :

The Enos Lake stickleback pair (benthic and limnetic) is only found in six coastal lakes in British Columbia. Among the youngest species on earth, their rapid and recent evolution has been the subject of considerable public interest and scientific inquiry.
http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/media/backgrou … ra16_e.htm

September 29, 2005 at 11:05 pm #30147

February Beetle

Participant

If you are a “separator” (I’m not sure if that is the correct word), instead of a “grouper” there are a LOT of things you could see as very young species. For instance, marine iguanas (are they called green iguanas?) are very different depending on what island they live on. Some people see those as separate species so there are some that are still in the process of adapting to changes that are seen to be becoming a new species. Also, a lot of migrating birds can reproduce with different species to form new species that are not barren like mules or anything like that, they can become their own species I guess. But I think a grouper would say they are all the same species if they can interbreed and have offspring that can reproduce. Like, all green iguanas are one species.

October 4, 2005 at 4:04 am #30352

123Herpatology

Participant

You mean like Genetic drift…Somewhat like Darwins theory with the Finch’s?

October 4, 2005 at 4:47 pm #30371

pedro21101

Participant

Im a grouper 🙂 Cause i would classify them probably as one species mainly in that iguanas (about birds im not sure).
About cyanotbacteria i know that in this group of orgs. are probably the oldest species of this old earth, but they are not animals. Thanks for informations about lingula and limulus. There can be really a lot of so living fossils from orders of invertebrates which have lived on the face of this planet for 500 million years. These two are so ordinary 😯 . What about the oldest known vertebrate and the youngest one?
123Herpatology: Yes.

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