There are clams alive today who hatched while the Ming dynasty was extant. There are trees alive today which sprouted ten thousand years ago. Hell, Pando (albe

There are clams alive today who hatched while the Ming dynasty was extant. There are trees alive today which sprouted ten thousand years ago. Hell, Pando (albeit a clonal colony) could be 1,000,000 years old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree) Astounding depths of time for a single organism to persist over - but ultimately dependent on a very sedate pace of life.