Fish that live more than 100 years discovered in Arizona desert

Scientists have found some of the world’s oldest living animals in a lake in the Arizona desert, USA. Some of these creatures were born in 1918 and are still alive today. This is a significant discovery because it’s only the second time a group of animals has been found where three or more species are known to live for over 100 years. This could lead to new research into human aging and how to extend human life.

The study looks at three species of buffalo fish, which are part of the Ictiobus genus. Alec Lackmann, the lead researcher and a professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said that the Ictiobus genus likely holds a lot of information about aging, longevity, and old age.

He added, "This study illuminates this potential and paves the way for a future where we can achieve a more complete understanding of the vertebrate aging process, including humans. The research prompts us to ask the question: What is the source of buffalo fish's youth?"

How was age determined?

Lackmann had studied buffalo fish before, and his 2019 research managed to increase the previously assumed maximum age for largemouth buffalo from around 25 years to more than 100. He accomplished this by using a much more refined aging technique than the one they previously used.

Instead of examining the fish's scales, Lackmann explained how scientists remove the so-called otoliths, or ear stones, from the inside of the fish's skull. Then, they cut the stones into thin sections to determine their age.

Approximately 97% of fish species possess otoliths. These small stone-like structures grow throughout the fish's life, forming a new layer each year. When processed properly, scientists, such as Lackmann, can examine the otolith using a compound microscope and count the layers, much like the rings of a tree, thereby determining the age of the fish.

Buffalo fish originate in central North America, including Minnesota, but researchers found those in this recent study in Lake Apache, a reservoir in the desert southwest. The government initially raised them in breeding ponds along the Mississippi River in the Midwest before introducing them to Lake Roosevelt (upstream of Lake Apache), Arizona, in 1918. While people commercially fished in Lake Roosevelt, Apache Lake's fish populations remained virtually stable.

Catch-and-release conservation fishermen noticed unique orange and black spots on many of the fish they were catching and they wanted to learn more about these markings. They came across Lackmann's first research in the process. Stuart Black, a fisherman from Arizona, contacted the scientist and invited him to a fishing day on Lake Apache. He promised to donate the collected specimens to science.

More than 100 years

Lackmann studied the collected fish and analyzed the age of their otoliths. They discovered that some of the buffalo fish from the 1918 Arizona population are probably still alive today, and that most of the buffalo fish in Lake Apache hatched in the early 1920s.

More importantly, they discovered that the three different species of buffalo fish found in the lake were over 100 years old. To their knowledge, they believed that they cannot find such longevity in multiple species of freshwater fish anywhere else in the world.

Lackmann sees exciting possibilities for the future study of this unique group of fish, with far-reaching implications.

Lackmann said that we could monitor these long-lived fish species to further study and understand their DNA, their physiology, and their ability to fight infection and disease. We could compare these systems across the age spectrum. The genus Ictiobus could potentially provide great value in the field of gerontology. Moreover, Lake Apache could become the future epicenter of a variety of scientific research."

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