Ocean quahog “Ming”. Photograph courtesy of Bangor University

A team of scientists from Bangor university announced that the world’s oldest known animal was an Icelandic clam known as “Ming”, but accidentally killed it whilst trying to verify its age.

Ming was a species of Icelandic clam known as an “ocean quahog” and was estimated to have been born in 1499, making it 507-years-old, with its name coming from the Chinese Ming dynasty (1368 – 1644) during which it was born.

It was taken from an Icelandic seabed in 2006, with researchers believing that it was just 405-years-old after counting the rings on the hinge of the clam – a difficult task after such a long period crowding them so closely together. The scientists opened the clam’s shell to check the age more carefully, killing the animal, and in the process finding that it was much older than they originally thought.

Whilst Ming may be the oldest living animal known, similar clams are caught by fisherman every year from Icelandic seabeds, with another older clam likely still alive, with the clam’s very slow metabolism the reason for its impressive longevity.