The longest living creatures on the planet have lifespans ranging from 200 to 400 years. The life expectancy of a human is just 70-80 years, but there are some animals that have the shortest lifespan and live only days or even hours. In this blog post, we will explore how these animals’ short lives affect their perspective and lifestyle as well as what they eat, how they reproduce, and more!
Some organisms can live for a mere few years or even days, well that too is incredible in its own right which is why here it is shown the four shortest-lived organisms in the world. There is a strange yet mysterious relationship between the simplicity of an organism and its age but whereas we observed that the simplest of organisms tend to live the longest, sometimes it seems inverse because some of the shortest living organisms also some of the simplest are nowhere is this truer than in case of following creatures.
Creatures with shortest lifespan:
- Gastrotrich
Gastrotrichs have a total lifespan of three days. They are mostly seen in the submerged surfaces and abundant in fresh water and marine environments. Multiple species of gastrotrichs live in both saltwater and freshwater conditions. Their look is transparent star-shaped or bowling pin-shaped, there are around 800 species of gastrotrich that have been described.
- Mayflies
Mayflies are known to be the shortest life span on the earth. Their lifespan is only 24Hours and is also known as one-day insects because of their life span. There are almost 2500 species of mayflies and some species die within few hours. Their only purpose is reproduction within a very short span.
- HouseFly
The housefly has a total lifespan of 28 days. Housefly which is not familiar with the annoying creatures that buzz in our ears and pester us when we want to be left alone. These creatures are ubiquitous, it can be found on virtually every continent. Most of the time Housefly tries to keep our homes tidy especially during the hot days with summer to keep out these foul animals. The fact is that they don’t have much time but only four weeks to lifecycle.
- Drone Ants
Drone ants are mostly males, their only function is to mate with the queen for reproduction. Their life span is very short and around 4 weeks. The only work for the queen is to lay eggs that produce and increase the population. Male ants die soon compared to female ants.
