Worlds Oldest Animal or was

Monday, October 29, 2007

Scientists Find 405 Year Old Living Clam

Scientists have found a clam off the coast of island that may well be the world's oldest creature. The ocean quahog clam was dredged up off the coast of Iceland and using the rings on its shell researchers claim it is 405-years-old.

Named Ming, after the Ming Dynasty which ruled China when it was young, the clam is so old that during its youth Queen Elizabeth I was on the throne and Shakespeare was penning his famous works.

Professor Chris Richardson, from Bangor University's School of Ocean Sciences explained that the rings on the clam's shell provide researchers with information about growth conditions year-by-year, and so provide a record of the environmental changes during the animal's life.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived animal was a clam found in 1982 aged 220. Unofficially, another clam - found in an Icelandic museum - was discovered to be 374-years-old, making Ming 31 years older. Link

Then they killed it to study its rings!!!!!