Longevity
Research suggests that lobsters may not slow down, weaken, or lose fertility with age, and that older lobsters may be more fertile than younger lobsters. This longevity may be due to telomerase, an enzyme that repairs DNA sequences of the form "TTAGGG". This sequence, repeated hundreds of times, occurs at the ends of chromosomes and are referred to as telomeres. Biologists who have studied lobsters argue that they exhibit negligible senescence and that they could effectively live indefinitely barring injury, disease and predation. Lobster longevity allows them to reach impressive sizes. According to Guinness World Records, the largest lobster ever caught was in Nova Scotia, Canada, weighing 20.15 kilograms (44.4 lb) and estimated to be 50 years old.
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Famous quotes containing the word longevity:
“Every thing teaches transition, transference, metamorphosis: therein is human power, in transference, not in creation; & therein is human destiny, not in longevity but in removal. We dive & reappear in new places.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)