The clam was apparently still alive when the scientists initially dredged it up - to date it, however, they were forced to cut through the shell to count the growth rings. Acknowledging the sad irony, the scientists expressed hope that they could glean information about long-livelihood and senescence - the process of growing old - from the diminutive mollusc. The official record for longest-lived animal, as determined by the Guinness Book of Records, had been previously held by a (wait for it) clam, discovered in 1982 aged 220. Unofficially, however, an even older clam - aged around 374 - was found by the Bangor team a few years ago.
Chris Richardson, a professor in the School of Ocean Sciences, is also hoping to use the clam as a proxy for studying past climate regimes and to make some predictions about the future impact of global warming.
"The growth-increments themselves provide a record of how the animal has varied in its growth-rate from year to year, and that varies according to climate, sea-water temperature and food supply. And so by looking at these molluscs we can reconstruct the environment the animals grew in. They are like tiny tape-recorders, in effect, sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time," he explained.
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Topic: The Oldest Animal in the World: A Clam (Read 540 times)