SortStack #1957 — 2031-10-18

By duration · Order from shortest to longest.

1. A Venus flytrap snapping shut on a fly 102 ms

   The plant can count: it only snaps after two trigger-hair touches within about 20 seconds, which keeps it from wasting energy on raindrops.

2. An episode of The Simpsons, without adverts 22 min

   The Simpsons is the longest-running scripted primetime series in US history — Bart has been ten years old for over three and a half decades.

3. A horse's pregnancy 340 days

   Foals can stand within an hour of birth and gallop within a day — a survival feature for a prey animal born on open grassland.

4. A frilled shark's pregnancy 3.5 years

   At an estimated three and a half years, it's the longest known gestation of any vertebrate — embryos grow just over a centimetre a month.

5. How long the Hagia Sophia has been standing 1.5K years

   Built in just five years under Justinian, it has since served as cathedral, mosque, museum, and mosque again across nearly 1,500 years.

6. How long Jericho has been continuously inhabited 10.8K years

   Among the world's oldest cities, Jericho's stone tower predates pottery itself — people built monuments before they made bowls.

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