Deinococcus radiodurans
Now we’re getting into the heavyweights of radioresistance, where larger organisms just can’t compete. The most radioresistant animals on Earth are tiny and generally more recently studied. Take D. radiodurans, a plucky little bacterium first discovered in some canned meat exposed to X-rays in 1956. The bacterium handles 15,000 Gray like a walk in the park.
Not only does D. radiodurans survive under copious amounts of radiation exposure, according to one paper, it experiences “luxuriant growth in the presence of high-level chronic irradiation.” In other words, this bacterium will outlast us all.
https://gizmodo.com/bacteria-found-in-nuclear-reactors-could-be-the-secret-1843965129
