507-Year-Old Clam May Be the World’s Oldest Living Being – History of Yesterday

umanity is forgetting what the most important resource in this world is. Time for many may not be as valuable, especially when you are surrounded by a cruel world. The average lifespan of a human is around72 yearsand for some, that is more than enough, but deep down despite how difficult life gets we all want to live forever.

During recent research, we have seen a hand full of creatures that are able tolive more than 200 years, almost triple that of the average human. However, knowing that there has been a creature that had lived for 5 centuries after humanitys destruction of this planet is truly a mind-blowing fact.

Ming the clam was discovered off the coast ofIceland at a depth of 262 feet(80 meters) by a team of researchers from Bangor University. The team was looking to study the growth lines in clamshells as part of a project that would show how the climate has changed over the last millennium. If you ever looked at the shell of a clam you would be able to see lines that would give an indication of how old that clam is. Professor Chris Richardson from Bangor University has an interesting description for them:

They are like tiny tape-recorders sitting on the sea-bed and integrating signals about water temperature and food over time. (Quote by Professor Chris Richardson)

The team started to count the rings and initially reached the conclusion that the clam they have discovered was405 years old. Its scientific name isArctica Islandica, but it is more commonly known as Quahog. This species is actually known to live for very long periods of time, many of which had been found before wereover 200 years old.

Whilst analyzing the age of the clam,it had died the same year in 2006. It had not been very well-specified exactly what caused the death of the clam, but it was most probably triggered by having the clam taken away from its original habitat. The rough shells tell an intriguing story, but they had even more to unfold.

In 2013, a team of researchers from around the world picked up the shells to conduct a more thorough study. During this study, the researchers have concluded that the clam was actually100 years olderthan what the previous research team has analyzed in 2006, making it 507 years old and the oldest living being known to mankind.

This means that the clam was born in 1499, thesame year Pope Pius IV, leader of the Catholic Church was born. The reason why researchers named the clam the mollusk Ming is because during the period of time it was born theMing Dynastywas ruling China (1368 to 1644).

Can you believe that Ming actually lived during the same timeLeonardo da Vinci painted Mona Lisa? Alive during the timeShakespeare was writing his incredible novelsand alive during five centuries of constant wars? This clam was so lucky for not intercepted humans for 500 years, yet the moment it did it died. What does this tell you about our kind?

Experts from the University of Bangor speculate that this species could actually surpass600 years of ageand that there are probably even older specimens waiting to be discovered. During morecurrent researchit had been discovered that the secret to the longevity of Quahog clams is a slowed-cell replacement process. There is a big possibility that our planet hosts even older beings that are still alive. As much as human curiosity is pushing me and the rest of humanity to find these creatures, I wish humanity will never find them, so they wont end up like Ming.

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507-Year-Old Clam May Be the World's Oldest Living Being - History of Yesterday