the.com/lifespan

the countdown that started before you could even argue about it

means The length of time a person, organism, or thing is expected to live or remain functional, from beginning to end.

from A compound of "life" and "span" — "life" from Old English "līf" (existence, the living state), and "span" from Old English "spann," the distance between an outstretched thumb and little finger, later any measured stretch. So a lifespan is literally life measured out like a length you could hold between your fingers — though the word itself is a fairly modern English compound.

longest human
Jeanne Calment lived 122 years and 164 days
jellyfish cheat
Turritopsis can revert to youth, dodging death
mayfly math
some adults live under 24 hours
clam record
Ming the clam reached 507 years old
telomeres
chromosome caps shorten with every cell division
for instance

jeanne calment — french person with longest verified human lifespan: 122 years, 164 days (1875-1997)

greenland shark — longest-living vertebrate: reaches 400+ years old in arctic waters

bristlecone pine — oldest known tree: great basin bristlecone pine in california is 5,000+ years old

the.com · every word