None of the answers given so far make these distinctions, but they're worth documenting:
The Different Types of DNS Server:
Authoritative Server
This is the server that holds the definitive (authoritative) information about a domain name. Authoritative answers from such a server have the AA bit set.
The answers from authoritative servers always contain the actual configured TTL from the zone file. i.e., if the TTL is set to 86400s, that's the value that'll be in the responses.
ISPs run authoritative servers to host the domains that they manage on behalf of their customers. The name servers run by the TLDs and ccTLDs are also authoritative servers, as are the root name servers.
Recursive Server
A recursive resolver only receives requests from stub resolvers. If the answer is in its cache it will return it immediately. If the answer is not in the cache it will iteratively ask the relevant **authoritative servers** for the answer, and then return it to the stub resolver.
Caching is a fundamental feature of recursive servers. The TTL received from the authoritative server continues to tick down, and when it reaches zero the entry is purged from the cache.
Similarly answers received from the recursive server show the decreasing value, not the original value from the zone. Per the example above, if a record was received with a TTL of 7200s exactly an hour ago, the answer from the recursive server will say 3600s.
ISPs run recursive resolvers for your PCs talk to, albeit most consumers actually rely on the DNS proxy in their home gateway, which forwards the query to the ISPs resolvers.
Stub Resolver
A stub resolver isn't a server in the normal sense, it's typically a library, and calls to `gethostbyname()` and related functions just invoke the code in that library.
The stub can't do anything except talk to a recursive resolver, relying on that recursive resolver to obtain all of its answers for it. All such upstream requests have the RD (Recursion Desired) bit set.
Some (but by no means all) stub resolvers have a cache.
Forwarding Server
A forwarding (or proxy) server doesn't (usually) cache. They're used to proxy packets between one network and another, typically sitting between a stub resolver and the recursive resolvers.