YHK - yet another hacker news clone

'Jonathan' is the oldest land animal on Earth

47 points gumby 5 hours ago 15 comments

scun 1 hour ago | parent

> The results revealed that Jonathan has “unique gene variants in most aging pathways” including DNA repair, insulin regulation, mitochondrial function, and “low entropy” methylation, reports the study.

min-maxing longevity vs speed and charisma

luipugs 1 hour ago | parent

I dunno, I think he's pretty charismatic. He has all these researchers wanting to spend time with him.

scun 39 minutes ago | parent

Sure but biologists will talk to anything. You know what happened to the other tortoises? Bored to death.

Ancalagon 1 hour ago | parent

He doesn't look a day over 90!

pil0u 1 hour ago | parent

Can't we just appreciate that exceptionality as it is?

Somehow, I wish we would leave that creature alone. For once.

fnordpiglet 17 minutes ago | parent

They did opt to swab his mouth rather than draw blood to minimize his discomfort. That seems like a pretty reasonable compromise for the value of learning and science

KylerAce 13 minutes ago | parent

Because a spit swab is so invasive?

samudrijan 1 hour ago | parent

In the Leftovers people think living in Jarden is why they were left. Maybe St Helena is the new Jarden.

dyauspitr 1 hour ago | parent

Interesting so the oldest land animal hasn’t cracked 200 but stuff that lives in the sea can go for five or 600 years or more.

epolanski 1 hour ago | parent

There's sharks out there that are much older than the United States.

And sponges older than pyramids.

repeekad 1 hour ago | parent

> the samples were delivered from Saint Helena to Florida by the U.S. Space Force.

...why space force?

sublinear 58 minutes ago | parent

It's a remote area and USSF has operations in nearby Ascension Island.

fnordpiglet 19 minutes ago | parent

Because Trump, Musk, et al are hoping to live forever but their lifestyle is not very forgiving - hence all haste.

verdverm 49 minutes ago | parent

he's so old, he's completely lost the hare /j

antonvs 28 minutes ago | parent

> Stephen Clark, an aging researcher

Shouldn’t they find a younger researcher?