by Christie Ewen 2/13/10
This fresh water organism deserves more attention. Hydra may be immortal because they regenerate their tissues and organs without an apparent end state. There's not enough data to make a conclusion but Daniel E. Martinez's study appears to suggest Hydra are indeed immortal.
An interesting point raised about evolutionary biology in both sources listed below is about TIMING. Just having the desired genes (that includes the so called "junk" DNA) is not enough to make an organism immortal, switches need to turn the genes ON and/or OFF at specific times.
REFERENCES
by Daniel E. Martinez
PBS Nova What Darwin Never Knew
What is the difference between aging and senescence?
