PICS: ‘Oldest-Ever-Woman’ World Record A Fraud As Daughter Assumed Mother's Identity

The Russian researcher points to discrepancies between physical characteristics listed on Calment's identity card from the 1930s and her appearance in later years. If Calment's record were to be cancelled, the new record-holder would be American Sarah Knauss, who died at 119 in 1999./ AFP IMAGE

"Analysing all these materials led me to conclude that Jeanne Calment's daughter Yvonne assumed her mother's identity," Zak told AFP. While opponents have slammed the report, some scientists have welcomed it and stressed the need for closer checks into longevity records. ./ AFP IMAGE

Zak suggests that in 1934 it was not Calment's daughter Yvonne who died of pleurisy, as official records say, but Jeanne Calment herself. Yvonne then took on her mother's identity in order to avoid paying inheritance tax. If that is so, the woman who died in 1997 was in fact Yvonne, and she was aged just 99./ AFP IMAGE

Moscow: A record held by a Frenchwoman as the world's longest living person could be fraudulent and involve an identity swap, Russian researchers have claimed in a report that has sparked widespread controversy./ AFP IMAGE

Jeanne Calment died at the age of 122 years and 164 days in 1997, setting a record as the world's most long-lived person that is still unsurpassed. But Russian mathematician Nikolai Zak is not convinced by her story. In collaboration with gerontologist Valery Novoselov, he spent months analysing biographies of Jeanne Calment as well as her interviews and photos, witness testimony and the public records of the city of Arles in southern France where she lived./ AFP IMAGE