Specimens of the black coral genus leiopathes such as leiopathes glaberrima are among the oldest continuously living organisms on the planet around 4265 years old giant barrel sponges can live more than 2000 years. Previous next bristlecone pines are the oldest unitary organisms in the world known to surpass 5000 years in age in the 1960s a then grad student cut down what would have been the oldest . What is the oldest living thing in the world a great basin bristlecone pine christened methuselah is thought to be the oldest living individual tree at about 5000 years old various living species have different life spans with some living for only days while others can survive for thousands of years. However the oldest precisely measured organism living on earth today remains for now a great basin bristlecone pine tree pando the quaking aspen and antarctic glass sponges could be much