World's oldest animal killed by scientists

bonzodog2

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/ming-the-clam-worlds-oldest-animal-dated-as-507-years-old-after-being-accidentally-killed-by-scientists-8942102.html

A team of researchers from Bangor University have announced that the oldest animal in the world, a species of Icelandic clam known as an ocean quahog, was 507-years-old.

Known as Ming, the bivalve mollusc was ‘born’ in 1499, meaning it was swimming in the oceans before Henry VIII took the English throne. It was named after the Chinese Ming dynasty, which was in power when it was alive.

Ming was unfortunately killed by researchers when they opened its shell to find out how old it was. The unlucky mollusc was picked up from an Icelandic seabed back in 2006, but scientists were unaware of the creature's record breaking age.

It was originally thought to be 405 years old, but advantages in aging methodology means that this age has recently been revised upwards to 507 years.

RIP Ming

kneemos

Some wrinkly clam.

The Bishop Basher

Ah Jaysus. They couldn't just leave it alone.

Frosty McSnowballs

Good job Science!

Ya big jerk!

uch

Nearly as old as the Cheese in me fridge

biko

It had to go....



Tony Soprano

That clam only had one day left 'til retirement.

Mr. Tom

Rest in Clam.

kneemos

Is a clam a fruit or an animal?

Duckworth_Luas

This is the clam before the storm.

Wait until PETA find out!

martinedwards

well, I hope they made chowder!

Arawn

Thats chowder frenchy

darkpagandeath

does it have a use by date ?

RikkFlair

507 years, only the good die young

Mr. Tom

Never look a gift clam in the clam.

BillyMitchel

Clam ye believe it?!

RobbingBandit

Bet somewhere Flash Gordon is smiling, Death to Ming!

worded

Didnt the oldest tree suffer the same fate.

Someone used a chainsaw and counted the rings to discover daaaaaaaaaah

It was the oldest living tree

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree)

Gandalph

This was un-BEAR-able to read...

Clam pun fail

CrazyRabbit

Gandalph wrote: »

This was un-BEAR-able to read...

Clam pun fail

Clam yourself down. It wasn't that bad. Just shell out a few quid for a decent book on puns.

AndonHandon

Let's go burn down the observatory so this never happens again.

anncoates

How merciless.

DrumSteve

What an awful pity.

Renegade Mechanic

Very good, Annacoates

dutcher

Must of having some wrinkly balls

dodderangler

Can't believe no one said this but


DEATH TO MING.
Flash Gordon/ TED

Calibos

I hope the Shell to Sea protesters don't get wind of this!

ScumLord

How delicious did it taste?

RobbingBandit

dodderangler wrote: »

Can't believe no one said this but


DEATH TO MING.
Flash Gordon/ TED

You stole my joke, death to you!:P

IvySlayer

Rest in Pieces

Gandalph

Absolute PANDA-monium in this thread

bonzodog2

RobbingBandit wrote: »

You stole my joke, death to you!:P

RobbingBandit, complaining about theft?

The Dom

Sounds like something ten year olds would do in the summer, twits.

Now what metaphor we gonna use to signify happiness.

tayto lover

I hear he told them nothing. He clammed up.
Hero Ming.

thunderdog

We really need to CLAMp down on this sort of thing

Wibbs

Bad day for Ming, but let's face it the chances that they found the oldest one are very slim, so there are likely loads of Mings out there and some may be a lot older. There's a type of jellyfish that is essentially immortal. When it gets very old or in times of stress, it flicks a few genes and grows younger, back into a juvenile and starts all over again. There are whales out there that are a couple of centuries old. They found one with an early 19th century hunting harpoon stuck in him and he was still plodding along. There are small box turtles in the US that may be centuries old. I strongly suspect in a century's time we'll have figured out a lot of this stuff and will be able to live a lot longer. If we keep on track for the next five hundred years time I can see the day when it will be possible to be as immortal as is desired. After all at it's basics it's an engineering problem. There's no real barrier to why you couldn't remain "25" for centuries.

Jarrod

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

Clam yourself down. It wasn't that bad. Just shell out a few squid for a decent book on puns.

FYP

artanevilla

THANKS OBAMA!

MadsL

Damn, we could have swapped it for Luke Flanagan and seen if the clam might be more useful as a TD...

kupus

of course it would be more useful than politicians . did you ever see the tongues on those yokes