Question: what is the oldest animal you have ever seen? x

Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 16 Jun 2010:

AHA! Well, if you mean the oldest animal on Earth throughout it’s whole history then the fossils I work on are your animal! They are the embryos of ancient marine creatures and they are about 550 million years old. That’s over half a billion years! Inside the cells you can STILL see the original fat droplets that would have nourished the developing cells and in some cases, what we think are nuclei! These animals became fossilised in something called phosphate (the stuff your bones are made from). They’ve survived all this time but it’s only in the past 20 years that scientists have been really looking at them. As for living creatures the oldest animal I know is my granny. She’s 90 and still going strong!