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Is it true that those creatures are believed to be immortal or we’ve just never seen one die of natural causes?

pests 1y ago
I believe one listed converts back to a polyp form under bad conditions and just has another go.
JumpCrisscross 1y ago
[EDIT: Biologically] immortal doesn’t mean indestructible. It just means they don’t age. Lobsters aren’t truly biologically immortal. They “continue to grow throughout their lives,” with “increasing amounts of energy” being needed to mount ans they grow larger [1]. “Eventually the cost is too high and lobsters can die from exhaustion.” (That said, if our cells aged like lobsters we’d live something like thousands of healthy years.) For true biological immortality, look to some jellyfish [2]. You literally can’t tell if a cell is taken from an old or juvenile. [1] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html [2] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-cheating-death.html https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-...
- latexr 1y ago
  > Immortal doesn’t mean indestructible. It just means they don’t age. Technically “immortal” means “never dying”, it has nothing to do with age. You could be unable to die but continue to age and become ever more decrepit (although the Oxford dictionary does list “never decaying” in its definition), for sure there’s a sci-fi short story about that out there. The mentioned creatures all age, they do get older, it just so happens their bodies don’t deteriorate, or they do but regenerate.
  - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
    > Technically “immortal” means “never dying”, it has nothing to do with age Hence my use of the term biologically immortal. > mentioned creatures all age, they do get older, it just so happens their bodies don’t deteriorate Were you really confused that OP was talking about stopping physical time?
    - latexr 1y ago
      > Hence my use of the term biologically immortal. That’s the second paragraph. I was specifically addressing only the first (the one I quoted). In that one you seem to be saying that “immortal means not aging”. That’s the only part of your post I wanted to address, the rest was very clear.
      - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
        Got it, thank you. Edited for clarity.

I believe one listed converts back to a polyp form under bad conditions and just has another go.

[EDIT: Biologically] immortal doesn’t mean indestructible. It just means they don’t age. Lobsters aren’t truly biologically immortal. They “continue to grow throughout their lives,” with “increasing amounts of energy” being needed to mount ans they grow larger [1]. “Eventually the cost is too high and lobsters can die from exhaustion.” (That said, if our cells aged like lobsters we’d live something like thousands of healthy years.) For true biological immortality, look to some jellyfish [2]. You literally can’t tell if a cell is taken from an old or juvenile. [1] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-lobsters-immortal.html [2] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-cheating-death.html https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/immortal-jellyfish-secret-to-...

latexr 1y ago
> Immortal doesn’t mean indestructible. It just means they don’t age. Technically “immortal” means “never dying”, it has nothing to do with age. You could be unable to die but continue to age and become ever more decrepit (although the Oxford dictionary does list “never decaying” in its definition), for sure there’s a sci-fi short story about that out there. The mentioned creatures all age, they do get older, it just so happens their bodies don’t deteriorate, or they do but regenerate.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > Technically “immortal” means “never dying”, it has nothing to do with age Hence my use of the term biologically immortal. > mentioned creatures all age, they do get older, it just so happens their bodies don’t deteriorate Were you really confused that OP was talking about stopping physical time?
  - latexr 1y ago
    > Hence my use of the term biologically immortal. That’s the second paragraph. I was specifically addressing only the first (the one I quoted). In that one you seem to be saying that “immortal means not aging”. That’s the only part of your post I wanted to address, the rest was very clear.
    - JumpCrisscross 1y ago
      Got it, thank you. Edited for clarity.