A clam that lived on the seabed in the frigid waters off Iceland's north coast has been hailed as the longest-lived animal ever discovered.
The mollusc, which is thought to have lurked beneath the waves until at least the age of 405, would have been a juvenile when Galileo picked up his first telescope, Hamlet was first staged and the gunpowder plot failed to blow up King James I.
The Arctica islandica clam was plucked from 80m-deep water by researchers at Bangor University in Wales, who were dredging the north Iceland shelf for the creatures. By studying their shells, the scientists hope to learn how the marine environment has changed in recent centuries.
The clam was alive when it was brought to the surface, but at that point, the researchers had no idea how old it was. Only after cutting through the shell and counting annual growth rings under a microscope did they date the mollusc to between 405 to 410 years old.
"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," said Al Wanamaker, a postdoctoral scientist on the university's Arctica team. "For our work it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."
Marine biologists are unclear why the particular species of clam, Arctica islandica, is so long-lived. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the current claim for the oldest animal goes to another Arctica clam that lived for 220 years, though an unofficial record is held by yet another that lived to 374 years old.
Dr Wanamaker said he believed the clam had survived so long because fisheries and predators were so few in the region. In some parts, clam populations have been wiped out through overfishing, while marine predators, including cod, seals and wolf fish also take a hefty toll.
Chris Richardson, a member of the team, said further studies of the clams might shed light on ageing. "If, in Arctica islandica, 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 process of ageing," he said.
The clams are born as larvae which drift through the oceans until they settle on to the seabed and begin to grow shells. Unlike scallops, they cannot propel themselves, but burrow down into the sea bed where they filter and feed on a constant rain of nutrient-rich phytoplankton.
"It's a mind-boggling amount of time to be sat there doing that," said Dr Wanamaker.
The project was part of a broader EU programme called Millennium, which seeks to understand changes in climate over the past 1000 years. The researchers can interpret how the ocean conditions varied by looking for changes in shell growth, which are affected by seawater temperature, salinity and availability of food.
The research team believe they may have older clams in their collection that have yet to be dissected.
"It's quite possible others are out there in the water that are 600 years old," said Dr Wanamaker.
There are some creatures (other than clams, even a reptile IIRC), constantly slowly growing, for which there has been suggestion of more or less indefinite lifespans, up to centuries, though any creature in the wild dies from some cause sooner or later. Such has been considered of interest for studying senescence, including as relevant for life extension research. But I don't have a reference link to give here.
[/url]
[/url]Earth is the cradle of humanity, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.
It is hoped that their genetics can lead to such "cures" for death, or at least a lower amount of cellular damage when we age e.g. living to 100 but still being as capable as a 20-year-old. Nematodes tend to be good for such studies with some living several times their normal expectancy through a mix of diet changes and genetic tinkering with telomeres.
Still, ancient clams. I wonder if they taste nicer when that mature.
The animal specification is important. There are trees with far more than 400 years under their belt, and certain anaerobic organisms deep under the surface are suspected to live on geological time-scales.
Adrian Laguna wrote:The animal specification is important. There are trees with far more than 400 years under their belt, and certain anaerobic organisms deep under the surface are suspected to live on geological time-scales.
The last I checked, trees weren't considered animals.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Adrian Laguna wrote:The animal specification is important. There are trees with far more than 400 years under their belt, and certain anaerobic organisms deep under the surface are suspected to live on geological time-scales.
The last I checked, trees weren't considered animals.
I dunno.... I swear I can hear the pine trees moo.
ASVS('97)/SDN('03)
"Whilst human alchemists refer to the combustion triangle, some of their orcish counterparts see it as more of a hexagon: heat, fuel, air, laughter, screaming, fun." Dawn of the Dragons
One of the factors involved with these clams is that they live in very cold waters, which probably slows their metabolism somewhat, but clams are fairly long-lived. The indigenous Finnish river pearl clam, or raakku as it is called here is known to live up to 220 or 250 years.
Warwolf Urban Combat Specialist
Why is it so goddamned hard to get little assholes like you to admit it when you fuck up? Is it pride? What gives you the right to have any pride?
–Darth Wong to vivftp
GOP message? Why don't they just come out of the closet: FASCISTS R' US –Patrick Degan
The GOP has a problem with anyone coming out of the closet. –18-till-I-die
Shouldn't the title be "Scientists KILL and FIND world's oldest animal", not the other way round?
"what huge and loathsome abnormality was the Sphinx originally carven to represent? Accursed is the sight, be it in dream or not, that revealed to me the supreme horror - the Unknown God of the Dead, which licks its colossal chops in the unsuspected abyss, fed hideous morsels by soulless absurdities that should not exist" - Harry Houdini "Under the Pyramids"
"The goal of science is to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions" - John Ruskin, "Stones of Venice"
"Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth." M.A.A.A
Androsphinx wrote:Shouldn't the title be "Scientists KILL and FIND world's oldest animal", not the other way round?
Well even though they didn't discover they had the oldest animal until after it was dead they did have to find the animal before they killed it.... the topic only has so much space before it clams up and won't let you type anymore
Androsphinx wrote:Shouldn't the title be "Scientists KILL and FIND world's oldest animal", not the other way round?
Well even though they didn't discover they had the oldest animal until after it was dead they did have to find the animal before they killed it.... the topic only has so much space before it clams up and won't let you type anymore
I see what you did there.
"There is no "taboo" on using nuclear weapons." -Julhelm
What is Project Zohar? "On a serious note (well not really) I did sometimes jump in and rate nBSG episodes a '5' before the episode even aired or I saw it."- RogueIce explaining that episode ratings on SDN tv show threads are bunk
This reminds me of that guy who cut down a millennial old tree in California to find out how old it was. Though for that fellow, he didn't realize what he was doing until on the drive back.
Turns out that a five way cross over between It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, the Ali G Show, Fargo, Idiocracy and Veep is a lot less funny when you're actually living in it.
This wouldn't seem to have much relevance if the clam has a drastically slower metabolism than humans. If we can actually glean a way to increase the # of cell divisions possible before death, then we'll be getting somewhere.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
