World's oldest animal 'may be imposter'

World's oldest animal 'may be imposter'

A giant tortoise believed to be the world's oldest living animal may be an imposter, it has emerged.

Last Updated: 12:43AM GMT 29 Dec 2008


The Jonathan in the photograph from 1901 looks like the Jonathan of today Photo: EPA

Jonathan, a resident of the remote British island of St Helena, was said to have been living on the island when Napoleon was exiled there in 1815.

His claim to longevity is based on a Boer War photograph of a Seychelles tortoise said to have been in the Atlantic island territory since Napoleon's time, the BBC reports.

The animal in the photograph is also called Jonathan, and for years it was assumed that the creatures were one and the same.

But a St Helena businessman and amateur historian, Nick Thorpe, suspects the creature in the picture actually died 90 years ago.

The confusion may have arisen because of a tradition among islanders of passing on nicknames from father to son.

Mr Thorpe told the BBC: "I have a feeling that the Jonathan in the Boer War photograph died about ten years later.

"Since they have several giant tortoises on St Helena, they simply named the next largest one Jonathan.

"The date of 175 years old is being assumed because the Jonathan in the photograph of 1901 looks like the Jonathan of today.

"As they are very difficult to date, no one can say with any certainty that this current, reigning Jonathan is 176 or 150 or even 200."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4001159/Worlds-oldest-animal-may-be-imposter.html