Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumResearchers kill oldest living animal to verify it’s the oldest living animal
http://grist.org/list/researchers-kill-oldest-living-animal-to-verify-its-the-oldest-living-animal/?w=470&h=265&crop=1
This is Ming the clam. Its 507 years old or anyway, it was 507 years old in 2006, when researchers who suspected it might be impressively ancient got kind of carried away trying to figure out just how old it was, and killed it. Its like an O. Henry story, but with bivalves.
The researchers who discovered Ming had to open it up to check their theory that it was around 405 years old. At the time, they were satisfied that the clam died for science but now, better dating methods have made clear that their earlier results were published in haste, and in fact Ming was a full 100 years older than previously thought. (Fortunately, its nickname after the Ming dynasty in China, in power in 1601 when the clam was thought to have been born is still accurate now that we know its been around since 1499. The Ming dynasty stuck around for a really long time, presumably to give future clam-namers some wiggle room.)
Like trees, clams are dated by growth rings, but in a clam as old as Ming, the rings are packed really tightly and hard to count with accuracy. Scientists had opened Ming up so they could count the rings inside the hinge of its shell, usually considered the best place to look but on re-dating, it turned out that the rings on the outside of the shell were larger and easier to count, and those rings indicated the new, older age. Which of course adds to the irony, since there may have been no need to open the clam to see how old it was.
Ming wasnt the oldest living thing on earth; that title belongs to a patch of sea grass in the Mediterranean. But until its ironic demise, it might have been the oldest animal. (Some sponges might outstrip it, but do we really think sponges count? I mean LOOK at them.)
hlthe2b
(101,698 posts)inhumane....
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Prometheus (tree)
Prometheus (aka WPN-114) was the oldest known non-clonal organism, a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) tree growing near the tree line on Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada, United States. The tree, which was at least 4862 years old and possibly more than 5000, was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and United States Forest Service personnel for research purposes.[1] The people involved did not know of its world-record age before the cutting (see below), but the circumstances and decision-making process remain controversial; not all the facts are agreed upon by all involved. The tree's name refers to the mythological figure Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and gave it to man.[2] The designation WPN-114 was given by the original researcher, Donald Rusk Currey, and means it was the 114th tree he sampled in his research in Nevada's White Pine County.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_%28tree%29
hatrack
(59,436 posts)Speaking of which, have you ever visited a bristlecone grove? The ancient trees are astounding, but the downed stuff is what struck me most.
Apparently, the wood is so dense, and so resistant to microbes and weather that it doesn't rot. It erodes, like rock. I knocked on a downed slab of bristlecone and it was like knocking on the side of a piano - the same sort of resonance and tone you'd expect from a Steinway (or maybe a giant marimba).
Just astounding - Great Basin is one of the least-known and most amazing national parks I've ever visited.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Long way from London...............England not KY.
Oldest we've got here is Fortingall Yew http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortingall_Yew. There is another big old one somewhere or other the location of which is secret.
Some of your bristlecones have been used for target practice in the past which is how I first learned of them years ago.
hatrack
(59,436 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)much of which we visit as children on obligatory traipses and then largely ignore. I think everyone has got something or other.
Cicada
(4,533 posts)I am a vegetarian for ethical reasons, but since clams have no awareness, no central nervous system, no brain, then maybe killing them is no worse than killing an eggplant.
hlthe2b
(101,698 posts)CFLDem
(2,083 posts)Scientists did the same thing to a 4500yo Bristlecone Pine some decades ago.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)I was writing while you were posting.
CFLDem
(2,083 posts)pscot
(21,023 posts)will be equally ironic.