'Jonathan' is the oldest land animal on Earth

Jonathan, a 194-year-old Aldabra giant tortoise living on Saint Helena, is the world's oldest land animal and has had his genome sequenced for the first time. Scientists discovered unique gene variants in Jonathan's DNA related to aging pathways including DNA repair, insulin regulation, and mitochondrial function, which may explain his extreme longevity and could offer insights into human aging. The research, published in Science Advances, represents years of collaboration to obtain genetic samples from the tortoise, which hatched around 1832 before Darwin's publication of On the Origin of Species.