# Scientists accidentally kill world's oldest animal at age 507 **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 16, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078 "2013-11-16T21:34:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/1 "2013-11-16T21:34:26Z")
> **[Scientists accidentally kill world's oldest animal at age 507](https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/11/15/newser-worlds-oldest-animal/3574863/)** > > Ming was killed when scientists cracked open its shell. > [@](#): > > The oldest animal ever known lived from 1499 until the day researchers cracked its shell open, killing it in the process. > > Ming, an ocean quahog from the species Arctica islandica, was initially thought to be a record-setting 402 years old. But the scientists who found it on a seabed near Iceland in 2006 now say further analysis has revealed that it was an incredible 507 years old, reports CBS. > > The researchers, who didn’t realize how old Ming was when they first found it, opened the ancient clam up to judge its age by counting growth rings inside its hinge ligaments. That’s because the rings are “better protected” there, scientist Paul Butler tells ScienceNordic, which notes that Ming was named for the Chinese dynasty that ruled when it was born. ::facepalm:: Really not much else to say. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/2 "2013-11-16T21:39:05Z")
What’s accidental about it? ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/3 "2013-11-16T21:41:30Z")
Was there some other way than cracking open its shell that would have allowed them to know how old it was without killing it? Because otherwise, I don’t blame those creaky clam killers. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/4 "2013-11-16T21:45:06Z")
I hope they at least made some chowder. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/5 "2013-11-16T22:13:19Z")
Well, I guess now that he’s cracked open, it should be pretty easy to do the autopsy. Such a shame - he died so young. His great, great, great, great, great grandparents are going to be devastated when they hear the news. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/6 "2013-11-16T23:04:11Z")
> [@MichaelEmouse](#): > > Was there some other way than cracking open its shell that would have allowed them to know how old it was without killing it? > > Because otherwise, I don’t blame those creaky clam killers. It’s pretty much Schrodinger’s Clam, innit? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/7 "2013-11-16T23:36:11Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > I hope they at least made some chowder. Charles Darwin was obsessed with eating as many animals as he could. If it’s dead I’d hope they’d try, at least to say that you ate 500 year old clam. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/8 "2013-11-16T23:37:34Z")
they didn’t clam up about it. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/9 "2013-11-16T23:47:08Z")
When they realized their mistake did they shut it quickly and try to Clamp it? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/10 "2013-11-16T23:51:08Z")
Typical. Doing more harm than good. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/11 "2013-11-16T23:54:31Z")
Oh Goddammit. Apparently, [another example of crappy reporting](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131116-oldest-clam-dead-ming-science-ocean-507/). No intentional clam murder involved. Well this combines two media errors which are coming up distressingly common lately: reporters misreporting thing then not checking their facts (see: “testicle eating fish”), along with a news story that was reported 7 years ago and now has a small update, but it’s made to seem completely new. I don’t blame USA Today specifically (they seem to be clearer on the age of the original story), but I bet that the Daily Mail or someone was a main culprit. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2013, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/12 "2013-11-16T23:55:45Z")
Surely, at that age, it had quite a big beard. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/13 "2013-11-17T00:32:54Z")
As the article notes, this was almost certainly not the oldest clam in the world, just the oldest one whose age had been determined. Older ones might be being killed all the time just to make clam chowder. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/14 "2013-11-17T00:48:49Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Oh Goddammit. Apparently, [another example of crappy reporting](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/11/131116-oldest-clam-dead-ming-science-ocean-507/). No intentional clam murder involved. Well this combines two media errors which are coming up distressingly common lately: reporters misreporting thing then not checking their facts (see: “testicle eating fish”), along with a news story that was reported 7 years ago and now has a small update, but it’s made to seem completely new. I don’t blame USA Today specifically (they seem to be clearer on the age of the original story), but I bet that the Daily Mail or someone was a main culprit. The fact that they actually killed 200 clams is supposed to make it better, is it? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/15 "2013-11-17T00:59:22Z")
I get it’s a shame to end something that’s lived a profoundly long time. But it’s lived a long, full life. Of just kinda sitting there. At the bottom of the sea. For half a century. Bored out of its goddamn clam-mind. Even for a clam, they probably did it a favor. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/16 "2013-11-17T00:59:56Z")
It’s a calamity of epic proportions. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/17 "2013-11-17T01:37:13Z")
No need to get oneself in a stew about it. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/18 "2013-11-17T02:02:03Z")
I’m reminded of a Far Side cartoon, in which a man is relating the centuries-long history of a giant sequoia, by reading the rings just after he’s sawed it down. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/19 "2013-11-17T02:16:10Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I get it’s a shame to end something that’s lived a profoundly long time. But it’s lived a long, full life. Of just kinda sitting there. At the bottom of the sea. For half a century. Bored out of its goddamn clam-mind. Correction: Half a _millennium_. But yeah, he was probably begging for death’s sweet embrace. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078/20 "2013-11-17T05:37:56Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > Bored out of its goddamn clam-mind. Well, strictly speaking, it’s clam-_ganglia_. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-accidentally-kill-worlds-oldest-animal-at-age-507/674078.md?page=2)