From the frosty murk of Iceland’s shore came a clam that outlived all things. And then some scientists killed it.
The late, great Icelandic clam was 410 years old. That’s twice the age of Guinness’s oldest animal and more than 30 years older than an unofficial contender, both of which were also clams. But in order to count the growth rings of the clam’s shell, the researchers kinda quashed it. Oops.
"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," Al Wanamaker, of the University of Bangor, told the UK’s Guardian. "For our work it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."
(It's probably worth mentioning that they didn't know it was 400 years old until the clam was already dead.)
The Bangor team expects to find even older clams in those icy waters and maybe even the secrets to how and why animals age.
"If … evolution has created a model of successful resistance to the damage of ageing, it is possible that an investigation of the tissues of these real life Methuselahs might help us to understand the processes of ageing," says team member Chris Richardson.
