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The World's Oldest Known Living Organism Is a Seagrass Meadow

Curated by Surfaced EditorialΒ·Regularly updated

An underwater view of a vast, ancient seagrass meadow stretching to the horizon with sunlight filtering through crystal-clear Mediterranean water

A Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadow in the Mediterranean near Ibiza is estimated to be up to 100,000 years old. It is a single clonal organism that has been slowly spreading across the seafloor since before humans left Africa.

Why It’s Interesting

This single organism has been alive through the entire history of modern human civilization and predates it by roughly 90,000 years. It quietly survived ice ages, sea level changes, and volcanic eruptions β€” all while most species went extinct around it.

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