We are often told that “life is too short” and we should “seize the moment”, but compared to the rest of the Earth’s population, humans here have much longer time than most.
So, which animal has the shortest lifespan?
It’s hard to say for sure. Transient life is difficult for researchers to study in detail, and many animals are still waiting to be discovered. However, the mayfly is a strong contender for the least long-lived creature.
These aquatic insects hatch from eggs in the form of nymphs and live underwater for up to two years. They then develop wings for the final stages – the subimago and imago stages – of their life cycle to mate. Many mayflies live for less than 24 hours in their winged forms, while some do not live even 5 minutes.
Most mayfly species move from water to land and air in the sub-photo stage and then reproduce in the photo-stage. They have no functional mouths or digestive systems in either stage, and instead live off energy reserves accumulated in the nymph. Luke Jacobsa mayfly researcher and professor of biology at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus, told Live Science in an email.
“Without having a huge digestive system, females have more room for eggs inside their bodies,” Jacobs said. “I’ve seen an individual so full of eggs that the eggs were inside his head. Sometimes more than 10,000 eggs per female, they can make efficient use of their short adult lives.”
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Like other species that live and die quickly, mayflies are highly predated and need to produce a large number of young in order to survive to adulthood and reproduce. But Jacobs noted that although it’s tempting to ask “why” mayflies have short lives, a better question is “why not?”
“Ancient may moth fossils are not very different from those we see today,” Jacobs said. “The system they have works very well for them.”
Heath OgdenA professor of evolutionary biology at Utah Valley University who studies mayfly evolution, told Live Science that these insects first appeared about 350 million years ago. Ogden also noted that “development “Reformers”, and in fixing this insect’s lineage, evolution found that investing more time as a nymph was a really good strategy.
“Evolution seems to have decided that you’re going to do mostly whatever you need to do in terms of collecting nutrients as a nymph, and as an adult, you’re just a mechanism for flying, reproducing and laying eggs,” he said. .
American sand-digging mayflies (American Dolania) They have the shortest adult lifespan of any recorded species, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Biodiversity Portal. Males live less than one hour once they reach adulthood, and females have only five minutes to reproduce before they die. However, American sand-burrowing mayflies still spend up to two years as nymphs before their surprisingly short adult stage.
American sand-digging mayflies (American Dolania) They have the shortest adult lifespan of any recorded species, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources Biodiversity Portal. Males live less than one hour once they reach adulthood, and females have only five minutes to reproduce before they die. However, American sand-burrowing mayflies still spend up to two years as nymphs before their surprisingly short adult stage.
Elsewhere in the animal kingdom, the seven-digit dwarf goby (Evota sealed) They complete their entire life cycle within two months and have the shortest lifespan of any known vertebrate animal, according to Australian Museum. The fish spends three weeks of its life as juvenile larvae in the open ocean; They then settle on the reef for a week or two to mature, before living no more than three and a half weeks as adults, according to a 2005 article in the journal. Current biology.
