Clam That Was Killed Determining Its Age Was Over 100 Years Older Than Estimated

schwit1 writes "In 2006, climate change experts from Bangor University in north Wales found a very special clam while dredging the seabeds of Iceland. At that time scientists counted the rings on the inside shell to determine that the clam was the ripe old age of 405. Unfortunately, by opening the clam which scientists refer to as 'Ming,' they killed it instantly. Cut to 2013, researchers have determined that the original calculations of Ming's age were wrong, and that the now deceased clam was actually 102 years older than originally thought. Ming was 507 years old at the time of its demise."

Just like the bristlecone pines

[pinguwin]

There was a scientist who cut down the oldest non-clonal living tree in the world, a bristlecone pine in the White Mountains in California http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_(tree) [wikipedia.org] It was about 5000 years old. They knew it was old but didn't exactly know how old it was but they sure did when they cut it down. D'oh! Even years later people would meet him and say, "Hey, weren't you the guy who..."

Re:7 Years

[camperdave]

When was the last time you actually counted as high as 507? I'm not talking about counting to 100 five times and then another seven, but actually counting each number from 1 to 507?

Re:mankind is a cancer

[akeeneye]

“The Earth has a skin and that skin has diseases, one of its diseases is called man.” - attributed to Nietzsche

Re:Scientists also killed the oldest living organi

[AlphaWolf_HK]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree) [wikipedia.org]

Re:Wow, this _is_ kind of a shame

[DaveAtFraud]

The oldest animal on Earth that we know of was killed. I'm sure there's lots of older stuff out there that we just aren't aware of.

Hush. Now someone is going to go out, find it and kill it. Then probably say, "Yeah, that clam wasn't theoldest living animal. This was."

Cheers,
Dave

Re:Climate Scientists

[Eskarel]

So because a handful of scientists killed a clam to get some information about it all climate scientists are incompetent? Seriously.

Re:Non-destructive testing

[uniquename72]

My first thought was: Do MRIs work on clams? This is like the genius who killed the oldest known tree in the world [wikipedia.org] to see how old it was.

Re:Shame on them

[Anonymous Coward]

Clam shells provide accurate historical temperature data. The problem with using a free shell is that you don't known how old it is.
By having a living one they now that the last "ring" is now.
From what I have heard clam shells are accurate down to a degree so this shell could indicate if there actually have been a several degree temperature rise the last 500 years.